The Temple Menorah (Part 1): Zechariah's Vision

Let's begin our multi-post discussion of the Temple Menorah with another prophecy from the Old Testament Book of the Twelve. This one, recorded by a prophet named Zechariah around 500 BCE, also concerns Zerubbabel and the Second Temple of Jerusalem. In this account, Zechariah actually sees and describes the symbolic Menorah. In the King James translation, his account reads as follows:

Then the Angel who talked with me returned and woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep. He asked me, “What do you see?”

I answered, “I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven channels to the lamps. Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”

I asked the Angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”

He answered, “Do you not know what these are?”

“No, my lord,” I replied.

So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

“What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’”

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.

“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”

Then I asked the Angel, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?”

Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two gold pipes that pour out golden oil?”

He replied, “Do you not know what these are?”

“No, my lord,” I said.

So he said, “These are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth.”

Like all Holy Visions, Zechariah’s is riven with symbolism. If we read those symbols literally, we miss the deeper meaning of the message. Let me, therefore, interpret Zechariah's through a mixed bag of etymological archeology and illuminated insight.

Let’s start with the word translated into English as "bowl." The Hebrew word Zechariah recorded was "gullah," which CAN mean "bowl," "reservoir," "spring," or even "the orb atop a column." But these are all SECONDARY definitions of the word.

According to both Strong's and Brown-Driver-Briggs, the FIRST definition of "gullah" is REDEMPTION, including the right and the object of redemption and, by implication, the relationship between the redeemer and the redeemed. And, as it so happens, this more accurate definition of "gullah" is the key to solving the Great Menorah Mystery.

This new understanding affirms that what the Angel of the Presence showed Zechariah wasn't merely a "golden bowl" feeding olive oil into a hollow menorah; it was a symbolic representation of the Chalice of the Atonement. And through that symbolic "vessel," the "two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth" fuel the Temple Menorah's seven lamps or "spirits."

When Zechariah asks what the two trees represent, the Angel answers indirectly. He also frames the answer as God addressing Zerubbabel. To save you scrolling back, the answer he gives is, "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit."

This seemingly amorphous response is actually quite illuminating on more than one level. On the most basic level, the Angel makes known that the Temple will not be finished through physical effort, because it's not an actual building. On a somewhat higher level, he conveys that God has divined that the Spirit of Grace will gently and gradually awaken the Souls dreaming on the earthly plane, rather than ending the dream abruptly through "power" and "might" -- i.e., the immediate application of God's Almighty Will. And on yet another level, he shows Zechariah (and us through him) that the Spirit of Grace will work through TWO partnering forces "anointed" by the True Father to carry out His Great Plan to end the dream of earthly existence gently and gradually.

The two trees or branches are meant to symbolize those two "anointed ones," while the "oils" represent the illusion-dissolving "substances" they dispense to do God's Will.

We can safely presume the two "oils" are the Blood and Water Rays -- the Yod and Mem powers of Elohim. In New Testament vernacular, those two Great Rays are the Blood of Christ and the Living Water -- the "twin" elixirs of redemption Jesus "brought forth" when he became the first earth-assigned Soul to complete his part in the Atonement Plan. As I understand it, a big part of his assignment was to activate God's Plan by opening the communications channel between the awake Christ Mind and its dream-bound brothers.

As Jesus told Sister (now Saint) Faustina in the early 1930s, the Blood Ray restores the Soul's memory of the everlasting life with which God endowed His One Son, while the Water Ray restores the Soul to "righteousness," "right-mindedness," "spiritual sanity," or upright Purusha perception.

And these two Great Rays do indeed grease the whole redemption "machine." But which Holy Power supplies which of these Rays? The answer is staring us right in the face, actually -- but may be blocked from awareness by some of the false beliefs and faulty denials we still cherish and defend.

For me, those blinders weren't so much cherished beliefs as unconscious presumptions. When I started writing this post (several months ago), I knew the Temple Menorah represented the Inner Instrument of the Spiritual Body, but couldn't say for sure what the seven lamps signified. I presumed they represented the Seven Spirits before the throne described in the Book of Revelations -- which is correct, as far as it goes. But I also mistook those Seven Spirits or LAMPS for the Seven Rays much discussed in Theosophy, Esoteric Astrology, and the modern-day wizardry dubbed "Occult Science." And, as I now realize, so have the misguided proponents of those ego-perpetuated teachings.

I might be wrong about this, but I don't think so.

Even as I read, wrote, and rewrote, day after day and week after week, I struggled to see through my egoic blinders. And then, I did see -- but only AFTER I opened my mind to the possibility that my presumptions about certain foundational concepts might be leading me astray. All the while, Jesus kept showing me the image above (which is displayed on candles all over my house). He even guided me to read the diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska, which describes his many appearances and messages to the Polish nun over the course of her 33 years in that blessed persona. The manuscript was, unfortunately, "Catholicized" by a panel of priests prior to its Vatican-endorsed publication. Interestingly, they retained the part where Jesus tells Sister Faustina she will teach the world about the Great Rays in her next life, too. The editors must have assumed he meant her "next life" in Heaven, as an Ascended Saint. What he actually meant, I'm almost certain, is her next life as ME.

Okay, yes ... it's taken me awhile to fulfill my teaching role in that regard, but better late than never, eh? 

Returning to the subject at hand, let me share something from the Course that provides more clues about the two trees flanking the "bowl of redemption" in Zechariah's vision:

My brother, you are part of God and part of me [the Christ]. When you have at last looked at the ego's foundation without shrinking, you will also have looked upon ours. I come to you from our Father, to offer you everything again. Do not refuse it to keep a dark cornerstone hidden, for ITS protection will not save you. I GIVE you the lamp, and I will go with you. You will not take this journey alone. I will lead you to your true Father, Who hath need of you, as I have. Will you not answer the call of love with joy?

In this revealing paragraph, we learn all of the following: 1) We are part of God and part of the Christ; 2) The Christ comes to us from the Father, to give us back the Holy Inheritance we threw away; 3) The Christ gives us the lamp and goes with us on the journey the lamp illuminates; 4) The journey leads back to our True Father -- the Father of the FIRST Covenant, Temple, and/or Trinity; and 5) We begin our journey back to the True Father by answering the Call to Awaken.

What has all this got to do with the two trees -- or the Menorah, for that matter? EVERYTHING, actually. BUT we can't see those trees through the shadows of deception until we open our minds to the possibility that our engrained beliefs about the Holy Trinity might be getting in our way. So, let's begin the "undoing" process on this particular subject by exploring what the Holy Trinity is and  is not.

Christian theology tells us there is one Holy Trinity, which resides in Heaven -- the place "good" Souls go after death. That Trinity consists of a bi-polar Father, who is loving and merciful one moment and wrathful and punishing the next; Jesus Christ, the ONLY Son of God, whose cruel, torturous, and excruciatingly unjust crucifixion was somehow our fault; and the Holy Spirit, a mercurial "dove" who flies around bestowing gifts on the very few Souls that God and Jesus deem worthy of salvation.

Not a pretty picture, is it? Nor is it an accurate one. When evaluated rationally, the "father figure" of the Christian Trinity is a Frankenstein's monster-esque compilation of aspects of the True Father and his would-be and completely insane usurper, the Great Deceiver. True to form, the Ego Mind and its dark agents have waged a distressingly successful campaign since the dawn of time to replace the True Father as the object of human worship.

This is as true in Hinduism as it is in Christianity -- with one notable proviso. Hindus don't worship Brahma, despite his designation as "the creator" and his puzzling inclusion in the Trimuti. Hindus also recognize two "trinities" -- the Trimurti and the Tridevi -- neither of which is the True Trinity headed by Param-Brahman. Based on what I've read and currently understand, the Trimurti (Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu) operates within the dream in partnership with the Tridevi (Sarasvati, Parvati, and Lakshmi). This model is partly right and partly erroneous.

What, then, are the two Trinities? And what role does each play in the salvation process? Let's explore those questions, starting with the First Trinity -- the True Trinity, which dwells eternally in Heaven proper, the formless and timeless realm of Perfect Creation. That Trinity consists of  the Holy Powers variously identified as 1) the God Mind, God the Father, the Uncreated Creator, the Causeless Cause, the Almighty Absolute, or Param-Brahman; 2) the Christ Mind, God the Son, the Created Effect, Creation, or Param-Shiva; and 3) the Creative Force of Agape, Holy Creative Spirit, or Param-Shakti.

As Hinduism correctly espouses, the Absolute God of the First or True Trinity -- Param-Brahman -- plays no part in anything going on inside Brahma's Egg. He doesn't even know Brahma's Egg exists. He only senses a logjam of sorts in the Wholeness of His Infinitely Extending Being, which He "wills" to remove.

As Hinduism also gets right, Param-Shiva doesn't act directly within Brahma's Egg, either. He does, however, work inside our egg-bound consciousness NOW through his emanated "agent," the Primordial Shiva. That "primordial" or "time-born" agent, emanation, or "spirit" of Param-Shiva is the "sacred dancer" whose choreographed movements destroy the illusion of duality. Rightly perceived, that "sacred dancer" is the Purusha Consciousness or "Holy Spirit" of the awake Christ Mind. That "spirit" works inside the dream-realm to urge us to choose God's Plan for us over the world's allurements. Rightly perceived, that "dancing" Purusha Consciousness is the Spiritual Light, Life, and Truth that both underlays and dissolves the illusion of form. In the celestial chain-of-command, Primordial Shiva ranks above and also directs the Second Trinity powers.

Primordial Shiva, the upright Purusha dancing inside Brahma's Egg

The Second or Atonement Trinity works exclusively in the dream-realm to make our return to Heaven possible, as well as to encourage us to "choose right" by answering God's Call to Awaken. Manifested by Elohim (rather than God), this dream-ending triune force consists of the Aleph, Lamed, and Hey "aspects" of the Creative Force of Grace. In Hinduism, those three "devas" are typically personified as Indra (Aleph), Sadashiva and/or Krishna (Lamed), and Vishnu (Hey). BUT, as stated earlier, Hinduism assigns many different personas to the various invisible forces present in the universe. These Second Trinity powers are, therefore, known by various other names as well.

The images below show a few recognizable personifications of the Lamed power of the Second Trinity.

Sadashiva, whose five heads represent either the Holy Powers of Elohim
or the five attributes the Soul must reclaim to awaken (as per Judaism).

Krishna, whose flute sounds the Call to Awaken in the lower waters of perception

Jesus as "the good shepherd," the Risen Son of God watching over his desert-wandering flock

Okay, so ... a couple of paragraphs back, I stated that Param-Shiva -- the True Christ of the First Trinity -- works inside the dream-realm NOW through his emanated "agent," the Primordial Shiva. Before the ascension of Jesus, Elohim (the Spirit of God) governed the divine aspects of the dream-realm from the "Throne of God" on the Seventh Plane. Afterward, Primordial Shiva (the Spirit of Christ) assumed the reins of power from his posting on the Sixth Plane.

Stated another way, the Spirit of Grace or God (Elohim) directed the yet-to-be-activated Salvation Plan until the Primordial Christ's scheduled succession. This is what Jesus means when he says (in the Course), "I am in charge of the process of Atonement, which I undertook to begin." 

This is also what he tries to convey in John 14 by stating: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me."

Or, as he clarifies in the URText:

"No man cometh to the Father but by me" is among the most misunderstood statements in the Bible. It DOES NOT mean that I am in anyway separate (or different) from you, EXCEPT IN TIME. Now, we know that time does not exist. Actually, the statement is much more meaningful if it is considered on a vertical rather than a horizontal axis. Regarded along the vertical, man stands below me, and I stand below God. In the process of "rising up," I AM higher. This is because without me the distance between God and man is too great for man to encompass. I bridge the distance as an Elder Brother to man, on the one hand, and a Son of God on the other. My devotion to my brothers has placed me in charge of the Sonship, which I can render complete only to the extent I can SHARE it.

This appears to contradict another statement: "I and my Father are one." It doesn't. There are still separate parts in the statement, in recognition of the fact that the Father is GREATER. Actually, the original statement was "are of one KIND."

Let me rephrase what he says in simpler language: On the return journey to Heaven proper, we must join minds with the Primordial Shiva on the Sixth Plane of Consciousness (Miraculous or True Perception, in Course terms) before "graduating" to the Seventh Plane of Grace Consciousness. And it is from that "peak" or "capstone" of the upright Purusha Triangle that God reaches across the "tiny gap" between the Pure Grace Consciousness needed for Perfect Atonement (the Second Covenant between Father and Son) and the Pure Agape Consciousness required for Perfect Creation (the First Covenant between the Creator and His Creation).

The Primordial Christ in the form of Lord Shiva

The Primordial Shiva in the form of Jesus Christ

In the Course, Jesus refers to the Primordial Christ as our "Appointed Friend." In a section of the URText devoted to this God-appointed "amigo," he says:

Lead not your little lives in solitude, with one illusion as your only friend. This is no friendship worthy of God's Son, nor one with which he could remain content. But God has given him a better Friend, in whom all power in earth and Heaven rests. The one illusion that you THINK is friend obscures HIS grace and majesty from you, and keeps his friendship and forgiveness from your welcoming embrace. Without him you are friendless. Seek not another friend to take his place. There IS no other friend. What God appointed HAS no substitute, and what illusion CAN replace the truth?

Who dwells with shadows is alone indeed, and loneliness is NOT the Will of God. Would you allow one shadow to usurp the throne that God appointed for your Friend, if you but realized ITS emptiness has left YOURS empty and unoccupied? Make NO illusion friend, for if you do, it CAN but take the place of him whom God has called your Friend. And it is he who is your ONLY Friend in truth. He brings you gifts that are not of this world, and only he to whom they have been given, CAN make sure that you receive them. He will place them on YOUR throne, when you make room for him on his.

To clarify:

The Appointed Friend = the Primordial Shiva =
the "Holy Spirit" of Param-Shiva devoted to our awakening

Got it? Good, because this can be quite confusing. And part of the reason it is so confusing is that Jesus aimed the Course at disenchanted Christians. To make the teachings relatable, he presents them through the distorted lens of one hybrid Holy Trinity, which doesn't really work.  And that's why I'm bringing Hinduism and Judaism into the picture in these discussions. While neither is 100 percent accurate, they both acknowledge aspects of the "elephant" of Spiritual Truth missed, ignored, or denied by Christianity's ego-inspired blinders.

Before we move on, let's briefly review the chain of events discussed in earlier posts. The dream started with the Great Projection -- the thrusting outward of our Creative Will to be independent from God. For some time thereafter, we still saw the Inner Light of God in ourselves and others and still heard the Father's vibratory communications. We shut out those two memory sustaining "feeds" by projecting them outward as physically manifested fire and ice. Agreeing something must be done to repair the incommunicado split this caused, the First Trinity projected the Creative Force of Agape (dialed down to "Grace") into the void to repurpose the dream, construct the at-one-ment infrastructure, and share the Great Plan with a select few human prophets and scribes.

To get the ball rolling, the Spirit of God's Grace (Elohim) produced the first two "aspects" of the Second Trinity and the Temple Menorah/Inner Instrument. Like the Great Plan itself, these devices existed only in principle until Jesus's ascension reopened the channel between the awake and sleeping portions of the Christ Mind. Once the channel reopened, the Primordial Christ entered the dreamscape (as planned all along) to finish the job Elohim started.

Speaking as the Primordial Christ or "Christ Presence" (in Course terms), Jesus explains what he did (and still does) in the following excerpt from the URText:

You WERE in darkness until God's Will was done completely by any part of the Sonship. When it was, it was perfectly accomplished by ALL. How else could it BE perfectly accomplished? My mission was simply to UNITE the Will of the Sonship WITH the Will of the Father by being aware of the Father's Will myself. This is the awareness I came to give YOU, and YOUR problem in accepting it IS the problem of this world. Dispelling it is salvation, and in this sense I AM the salvation of the world.

Remember this, because (as you'll see) it's the key to unlocking the Great Menorah Mystery.

Pop Quiz question: Which of the two Trinities do we see here?

Most Christians would probably identify the figures above as the First Trinity. They are, in fact, neither the First nor Second, in their entirety. The dove in this image represents Elohim, whose first two "atonement" emanations were Lamed (depicted as Jesus) and Aleph (depicted as God). This is suggested by the two beams radiating from the "Spirit of God," as well as by the upright triangle of Purusha Consciousness behind the Aleph figure's head.

Interpreted correctly, the image depicts Elohim on the Seventh Plane of Grace Consciousness, extending the Blood and Water Rays down to the Sixth Plane of Christ Consciousness, where they "live and reign" as the Lamed and Aleph powers. The absent Hey Power, meanwhile, operates just below them, from the Fifth Plane of Soul Consciousness. From that position, the Hey Power extends the Great Rays into the lower-waters of Ego Consciousness (via the Inner Instrument), more or less as illustrated below./div>

The seven beams radiating from the "capstone" of the upright Purusha Triangle are the seven emanations of those two Rays. And these are the "spirits" that light the lamps of the Temple Menorah (as seen and described by John the Elder in the New Testament Book of Revelations).

It took me ages to figure out what these seven emanations represent -- and to finally discard, once and for all, the various esoteric teachings about the Seven Rays. As I now conceive them, these seven "spirits" are divided into two groups of three "teaching" powers and one "pupil," which moves upward as it advances through the Atonement Academy's seven grade levels (the seven planes of perception represented by the chakras).

The three lamps on the right represent the Father's Will for our return, which calls to us (magnetically) from the EAST side of the Menorah. The three lamps on the left represent the Son's Will -- or, more accurately, the CHOICES we must make to align our will with the Father's, with the help of the Holy Spirit of Primordial Shiva. The lamp in the middle represents the Divine Spark or Soul, whose learning goal is to UNITE the powers on both sides of the Menorah within its Self.

While drifting in the lower waters of perception, our Souls hang upside-down in the dark cocoon of Prakriti ignorance, unaware of their True Identity. To "undo" the sticky layers of that ego-spun chrysalis, the Seven Rays "teach" the Buddhi or Witness Consciousness to "see reason" -- i.e., see things God's way -- on the four levels of "ignorance" the lower-water "chakras" represent. Once the Soul sheds those layers, it "graduates" to the Spiritual Triad, where the Second Trinity powers take over as its teachers.

Right-mindedly interpreted, the Menorah is a blueprint for the atonement mechanism in the "lower-water" half of the Dharmachakra -- the "wheel" or "single-eye" through which we perceive the Light of God in all things.

In the Hindu Vedas, the Dharmachakra is associated with Surya, the god of the Spiritual Sun and its maya-melting Holy Rays (as we'll discuss later on). Like Elohim, Lord Surya sits on his "Chariot Throne" atop this single "wheel," disc, or chakra. In the Vedas, the Dharmachakra is described as "the eye of the world" that illuminates and perceives the world. That "wheel" or "eye" belongs to Mitra -- an early Vedic personification of the Blood Ray.

In Buddhism, the Dharmachakra is commonly associated with the Bhavacakra -- the Wheel of Earthly Existence or Samsara. A pictorial representation of the Buddhist worldview, the Bhavacakra is displayed on or near the entrances of most (if not all) Buddhist Temples. 

Known in esoteric and occult circles as Ezekiel's Wheel, the Dharmachakra is depicted, along with various other intriguing symbols, on THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE card in the Rider-Waite Tarot.

The process through which the seven "spirits" or "lamps" work together through the Menorah might look something like the image below, which I borrowed from Rick Ireton's interesting-but-not-altogether-accurate book, Chakra Key: A Key for Humanity. Mr. Ireton is correct that the Menorah and the chakras play pivotal roles in the ego-undoing process. He errs by confusing the lamps with the chakras and by accepting the "prevailing wisdom" that the spiritual and physical bodies operate on the same plane of perception. They are both, in fact, manifestations arising from two wholly SEPARATE minds, only one of which is REAL.

We'll talk more about Mr. Ireton's ideas, the Dharmachakra, and the WHEEL OF FORTUNE card in future posts. For now, just know that the lamps across the top are NOT the chakras. They represent the Holy Powers working through the Temple Menorah to help unblock the four "epicenters of perception" that run up the "spine" or "stem" of the lampstand, in the manner shown below.

We've jumped too far ahead, so let's circle back to the two "anointing oils" that grease the whole Atonement Machine. As Jesus implies, those two "oils" represent the "twin" aspects of the WILL shared by the True Father (Param-Brahman) and the True Son (Param-Shiva) to end the dream of separation, whilst still honoring the Sonship's free and freely given Creative Will. 

The Blood Ray represents both the Light and Life of God within us AND the Father's Will to wake us up, while the Water Ray represents both the inner Christ-Self AND the Son's will to be awakened in accordance with the Second Covenant. That "covenant" between Father and Son was forged in Heaven long ago, but is yet to be fully realized on earth. This "contract" was, however, "signed" by Jesus, while his Soul yet dwelled in the realm of earthly existence. And by signing that contract HERE, he opened the door back into Heaven for the rest of us.

If we add the Menorah to Mr. Ireton's illustration, we can see the push-pull dynamic of the undoing process in action. The God-Will part of the Blood Ray calls us to awaken from the EAST side of the Menorah. As Jesus says, that Call to Awaken is not only powerfully magnetic; it's also IRRESISTIBLE to the Soul. As stated earlier, the Soul or Divine Spark is (I believe) BOTH the part of us that's God, and an atonement device programmed to respond to its Creator's Call at the appointed time (with our prior unconscious consent).

Thus, the Blood Ray is the source of BOTH the Call to Awaken and the internal Divine Spark of Eternal Light and Life that answers the Call at a pre-determined time. We answer the Call by inviting the Holy Spirit (of the Christ-Self) to show us a better way to perceive the world and its occupants.

Or, as Jesus explains in his usual lyrical way:

The Holy Spirit is the light in which Christ stands revealed. And all who would behold Him can see Him, for they have ASKED for light. Nor will they see Him ALONE, for He is no more alone than THEY are. Because they SAW the son, they have risen IN HIM to the Father. And all this will they understand, because they looked within, and saw, beyond the darkness, the Christ in them, and RECOGNIZED Him. In the sanity of His vision, they looked upon themselves with love, seeing themselves as the Holy Spirit sees them. And WITH this vision of truth in THEM, came all the beauty of the world to shine upon them.

As the Blood Ray pulls on its own Holy Seed from the East, the Water Ray gently "pushes" us from the West to "choose right." One of the ways the Water Ray applies this gentle pressure is by presenting us with cyclical "forgiveness lessons." Those lessons, Jesus tells us, grow more painful each time we ignore them, thereby ensuring our eventual submission. Or, as stated in the Course's introduction, "Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time."

We can, in other words, choose not to learn the lessons presented to us, but only until our self-inflicted suffering grows so unbearable we FINALLY turn to God for help. But why put ourselves through all that unnecessary pain and anguish when we can answer the Call right now?

Elsewhere in the Course, Jesus makes clear that free will isn't the carte-blanche hall-pass we might presume it to be. God, who created free will, also placed limits on how much and how long we can abuse this "gift" on the earthly plane. As Masters Pursah and Arten told Gary Renard (in The Disappearance of the Universe), the dream is a "closed system," meaning we can only push the boundaries so far before built-in restrictions come into play.

And yes, I've veered off-topic again, so let's swing all the way back to Zechariah's vision of the Menorah. In that vision, the prophet saw two pipes filling a golden bowl with "oils." On either side of the bowl stood two olive trees symbolizing the source of those oils.

In my usual circuitous and meandering way, I have solved the mystery of what those symbols represent. In case I lost you along the way, the symbols and their meanings are these:

The Menorah = the Inner Instrument through which we navigate our way back to Heaven or Superconsciousness

The Golden Bowl = the Chalice of the Atonement

The Two Oils = the Blood and Water Rays

The Two Trees = the shared will of Param-Brahma and Param-Shiva at work in the dream-realm through Elohim (the Holy Spirit of God) and the Primordial Shiva (the Holy Spirit of Christ)

Okay so ... this concludes the first segment of our discussion of the Temple Menorah, BUT there is much more to share and discuss, so do come back for my next post -- whenever that might be.

Until we meet again outside the Golden Circle,

Namaste and God Bless 

The Hanged Man, Seal of Solomon, and Sacred Heart of Jesus

 

In the Rider-Waite Tarot, the mysterious card of THE HANGED MAN depicts the Son of God's predicament in the Dream of Separation. Like the figure on the card, we are suspended upside-down from the Tree of Ignorance, oblivious to the Spiritual Being dwelling within the symbolic forms our minds outwardly project. That hidden Holy Spirit, Pure Awareness, or "Purusha" is indicated by the upside-down figure's golden nimbus. Being the antidote to guilt, that Holy Presence holds the key to our spiritual liberation, as Jesus explains in Workbook Lesson 39: My holiness is my salvation.

Like THE HANGED MAN, we are fooled by what we perceive and interpret from our inverted vantage point. Consequently, we 1) put more faith in what our faulty senses report than in the unseen forces they fail to perceive; 2) value physical "proof” and "evidence" over intuitive knowing; and (like the man on the card) 3) seek contentment in confinement and chaos instead of striving to break free of our bindings.

So deceived are most of us by the illusion, we never question its authenticity (and often ridicule those who do). Until we open our minds to the Truth, we will hang upside-down in the void of nothingness we call earthly existence, as Jesus explains in the passage below from the Course's URText:

What protects madness is the belief that it is TRUE. It is the function of insanity to take the PLACE of truth. It must be seen as truth, to be believed. And, if it is the truth, then must its opposite, which was the truth before, be madness now. Such a reversal, completely turned around, with madness sanity, illusions true, attack a kindness, hatred love, and murder benediction, is the goal the laws of chaos serve. These are the means by which the laws of God appear to be reversed. Here do the laws of sin appear to hold love captive, and let sin go free.

Let's revisit THE HANGED MAN, right-side-up or "reversed" this time. If we look carefully, we can see that the figure's posture forms two overlapping triangles, one pointing upward and the other pointing downward. The figure's haloed head forms the point of the upright triangle, with his bent knee suggesting its base. The straight leg forms the top of the inverted triangle, with the bent arms forming the base.

Can you see what I'm talking about? I hope so because the upright triangle symbolizes the Purusha, Christ-Self, or Holy Spirit, while the upside-down triangle symbolizes the Ego Mind's Prakriti or outwardly perceived illusion of material existence. As Jesus explains in the Course (and above), when we chose perception over Knowledge, we turned our understanding of reality upside-down. In so doing, we blocked our awareness of everything "of God," including our own Divine Authorship, Inheritance, and Creative Powers. To restore the Holy Truth to our minds, we must go back the way we came. We must, in other words, allow our indwelling Holy Spirit or Purusha to turn our perception around again using the "spiral" the illusion of time actually is.

THE HANGED MAN is, in fact, a "disguised" six-pointed star. As such, the card (like the star itself) illustrates our overlapping and opposed states of being: Purusha, the True and Eternal, and Prakriti. the false and ephemeral. Upside-down in the world, we are THE HANGED MAN -- the unholy "ego-self" suspended in the illusory void of sin, scarcity, separation, sacrifice, and specialness we manifested with the split-off Ego Mind. Right-side-up, we are the realized Purusha -- the Holy Son of God, joyfully dancing in the Golden Circle of Perfect Creation. Right-side-up, we are as perfect, innocent, and guiltless as God created the Sonship/Christ Mind in the beginning (before we dreamed the world of separation and suffering into non-being). 

Often downplayed as a decorative motif widely used in ancient times, the six-pointed star is, in fact, a powerful symbol in a wide range of mystical traditions. Because it appears on the flag of Israel, we primarily associate the double-triangle today with the Jewish religion and homeland. Would it surprise you to learn that the "Star of David" didn't become a formal Jewish emblem until 1897? Prior to appearing on the flag of the First Zionist Congress in that year, the Star of David or Shield of David was used by  a mere handful of Jewish communities across Europe. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the star's earliest links with Judaism began in the Middle Ages, when it was popularized by Kabbalists (Jewish mystics) as a protective talisman against evil.

The encyclopedia's account is only partly accurate. Kabbalists DID use the symbol in medieval times, but so did Islamic mystics and Western occultists and alchemists. At the time, the double-triangle was not, however, known as the Star of David. The mystical double-triangle was known as the Seal or Signet of Solomon.

According to legend, Solomon -- the Biblical king prized for his wisdom -- wore a signet ring given to him through the industry of the Archangels (another name for the Elohim powers). When pressed into wax, that ring produced a seal or emblem. The ring itself was said to be the source of Solomon's great wisdom. It also gave him the power to communicate with spiritual entities, both good and evil, as well as to speak to animals.

Interestingly, that same signet ring is mentioned in the Sefer HaRazim, the "Book of Secrets" believed to have been given to Noah (of ark fame) by the Archangel Raziel (a.k.a. Raphael). In Jewish mysticism, Raziel is known as the "Angel of Secrets," "Angel of Mysteries," and "Keeper of All Magic." He is also believed to be one of the heavenly beings that gifted the Sephirot of the Kabbalah to humankind. According to legend, the "Book of Secrets" was subsequently passed down until it came into King Solomon's possession. Thought to be a sourcebook for Jewish "magic," the Sefer HaRazim reportedly advises its readers to call upon angels rather than God to perform supernatural feats (miracles). This seems sensible, given that God doesn't act directly in our dream of worldly existence.

The signet ring and/or Seal of Solomon is also discussed in the Old Testament, the Babylonian Talmud, and an ancient Greek book of magic titled The Testament of Solomon, as well as in the first-century writings of Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus. In the Old Testament, the ring is mentioned by the Angel of the Presence (the Holy Spirit, YWEH Elohim, or Great I AM, basically) to one of the lesser Hebrew prophets. In the prophet's account of their conversation, the Spirit says, more or less, that he/she will wear the future Messiah like a signet ring. What that statement means is this: The Holy Spirit would "wear" the Messiah (Jesus Christ) as a symbol of God's Promise to save us from our self-created nightmare. And this is indeed the case, as Jesus explains in the Course's Manual for Teachers.

Knowing this makes me wonder if King Solomon actually wore this legendary ring or if the wires got crossed as the story passed down the ages. Perhaps it was the Great I AM who wore King Solomon like a signet ring to symbolize the Higher Wisdom the Atonement Plan would enable dream-centuries later. This seems quite possible, given that the Seal of Solomon does IN FACT illustrate the Atonement dynamic.

Now that I've piqued your interest, let's look at various versions of the Seal of Solomon. One of the earliest appears on the title page of the Leningrad Codex, the oldest surviving copy of the complete Hebrew Bible. According to its contents, the Codex was produced in Cairo, Egypt, in 1008 CE (or possibly 1009 CE). This particular "seal" displays various biblical passages in Hebrew (woven around the frame), as well as acknowledgement of the scribes and their rabbi (in the center hexagram).
 

I found the version below on a fascinating website called Mystic Symbolism, which identifies the symbol shown as the Double Triangle of Solomon. It was, in fact, my discovery of this image that led me down the rabbit hole from which I gleaned much of the information shared herein about Solomon's Seal.

Okay, so ... what do the symbols on the figure above signify? Some pretty important stuff, as it turns out. The top point bears the letter Alpha, the Greek equivalent of Hebrew's Aleph -- the Father and/or Supreme Will aspect of Elohim. The lowermost point bears the Greek letter Omega, as in "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." The other four points display the Hebrew letters making up the word EHYEH, which appears in the Old Testament Book of Exodus 3:14. In the King James translation, the verse reads: "And God said unto Moses, 'I AM THAT I AM': and he said 'This shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

Although EHYEH is commonly translated into English as "I Am that I Am," astute Hebrew linguists translate the word or name as "I Am the Being-One" or "I Am what always was, still is, and will be again." EHYEH is, therefore, the God-created Purusha, Spiritual Being, or Pure Awareness dwelling within all lifeforms. And the Seal of Solomon promises that that indwelling Purusha will know itself again one day as the Holy Being it's always been.

Let's jump back to the passage in Exodus, because I need to clarify two things. The first is that the phrase "Children of Israel" does not describe the Jews alone. The word "Israel" derives from the Hebrew word "Yisreal," which means "God perseveres." The phrase "Children of Israel" refers, therefore, to all the Souls bound in Ego Consciousness, whom God has promised never to abandon (however much we screw up or stubbornly refuse His help). My second point of clarification is this: As in Genesis, the Hebrew word translated into English as "God" was "Elohim" -- the Spirit of Grace, rather than God the Father Himself. Earlier in the story, the Burning Bush identified itself to Moses as YHWH or EHYEH ELOHIM. The talking shrub was, therefore, the YHWH or EHYEH power of Elohim, rather than the Mother Spirit of Grace itself.

Rightly understood, the Flaming Tree itself was a message. What did it signify? That the purifying fires of the atonement would one day burn up the Tree of Ignorance from which the Son of God hung upside- down in the imaginary Realm of Perception (Prakriti).

Makes sense, right? 

Have I mentioned yet that my first memory in this life was of waking to see a burning bush on the floor outside my crib? I was about one year old at the time. I was, of course, terrified by the apparition. Only these many years later do I realize it was a positive sign. The message was, I presume, that I would be lifted up in this life, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness (to quote Jesus). In case you don't know, that bronze snake Moses fashioned represented Shakti-Kundalini. Rightly understood, she is the serpent-fire that breaks the spell of the Great Deceiver -- the biting snakes symbolized in the Biblical allegory.

Okay, so ... who is YHWH? Once again, the Hebrew letters making up the word provide the answer. From right to left, they are Hey, Vav, Hey, and Yod. Hey, as we've established, is the third or Holy Spirit power of Elohim, while Yod is the Divine Spark, Blood of Christ, and Lamp of God that enables our transcendence from upside-down Prakriti Consciousness to right-side-up Purusha  Awareness.

The letter Vav or Waw is the sixth in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet. The sound Vav makes is "oh" -- the same sound made when the Sanskrit word "Om" is pronounced correctly. Vav means "hook," "and," or "joiner." Thus, in the word YHWH, it signifies the "unstruck sound" that joins our minds with each other and God. That sound is the "primordial" or "cosmic" Aum, Om, or Nada vibration -- the Voice for God, Living Water, or Bridge to Eternity. Working alongside the Blood or Yod Ray, that sound dissolves the illusion of separation and restores Yechinda, Wholeness, or Unity. All of this renders obvious (to me, at least) that YHWH and/or EHYEH ELOHIM is the Holy Spirit or Hey Power of Elohim, NOT God the Father per se.

In the following from the Course, Jesus affirms much of what I've just explained:

Right perception is necessary before God can communicate directly to His altars, which He established in His Sons. There He can communicate His certainty, and His knowledge will bring peace without question. God is not a stranger to His Sons, and His Sons are not strangers to each other. Knowledge preceded both perception and time, and will ultimately replace them. That is the real meaning of “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,” and “Before Abraham was I am.” Perception can and must be stabilized, but knowledge is stable. “Fear God and keep His commandments” becomes “Know God and accept His certainty.”

This brings us to the final letter in the Double Triangle of Solomon -- the "T" in the center hexagram. That "T" is a Tau, the nineteenth letter in the Greek alphabet. Symbolically, Tau is especially significant, because it represents Christ, the Cross, Higher Truth. Redemption, Resurrection, God's Law, Divine Order, Eternal Life, the Greater Good, and the Golden Ratio, as well as TIME itself.

The Tau is also the Tao -- the road, channel, path, or WAY we must follow to remember the fullness of our being or pleroma. That Tao is the lotus seen in Hindu images of the various helpful Devi, as well as the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz. That Tao is communicated to us through the Aum vibration, ever-present echo, Voice for God, or Song of Heaven, whose source is the Lamed, Risen-Son, or Christ power of Elohim. From the Sixth Plane of Awareness, the Christ Presence sings that "song" into our dreaming minds via the Purusha or Holy Spirit.

This is the idea Jesus tries to get across to his disciples in John 14 when he says: "I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me." The way and the truth and the life are code for the three graces or powers of Elohim operating in the lower waters of mind. Those three powers, working together, lift us up to the Sixth Plane -- the place where Christ dwells in the Father's house of many rooms.

Seeking and following that encoded inner Tao is, in fact, the ONLY purpose of human existence, as Jesus reminds us repeatedly in the Course.

From all of this we can safely deduce that the six-pointed star or Seal of Solomon symbolizes the fulfillment of the New Covenant -- God's GREAT PROMISE to save us from the Prakriti we insanely choose everyday over Him, Heaven, and the fullness of our being. Or, as Jesus says in the Course:

Salvation is a promise, made by God, that you would find your way to Him at last. It cannot not be kept. It guarantees that time will have an end, and all the thoughts that have been born in time will end as well. God’s Word is given every mind which thinks that it has separate thoughts, and will replace these thoughts of conflict with the Thought of Peace.

Just so we're clear, when Jesus uses the terms "God's Word" and "God's Voice" in the Course, he MEANS the vibration we hear with the inner ears of our Souls. That Divine Voice communicates in tones our Higher Minds understand, even if our lower minds don't. Focusing on those tones in the silence of meditation supplies the strength and/or sustenance the Purusha needs to overpower the Ego Mind. And because the Purusha is universally shared, we lift up everyone's Soul as we lift up our own. This is the idea Jesus tries to get across in Workbook Lessons 36 - 39.: My holiness envelopes everything I see, My holiness blesses the world, There is nothing my holiness cannot do, and My holiness is my salvation. In Lesson 58, wherein we review these ideas, Christ gives us the following prayer to meditate upon:

The perception of my holiness does not bless me alone. Everyone and everything I see in its light shares in the joy it brings to me. There is nothing that is apart from this joy, because there is nothing that does not share my holiness. As I recognize my holiness, so does the holiness of the world shine forth for everyone to see.

Or, to borrow from John F. Kennedy, "A rising tide of Purusha lifts the arks of all Souls."

Let's now compare the Seal of Solomon, as depicted in the Codex, with the Hindu image above of the Anahata or Heart Chakra, which contains a six-pointed Shatkona. The pictographic symbol in the center hexagram denotes the seed mantra "yam." The repetition of that sound-mantra (allegedly) helps to unblock this chakra. The "bindu" or dot atop the symbol signifies Ishvara -- the Supreme Self, Soul, or Purusha, which (as the Course also teaches) is part of Shiva/Christ. That Self, Soul, Divine Spirit, Holy Presence, or Purusha is said to reside in this transitional chakra. You will feel it there, radiating Christ's Holy Presence, when you reach the fourth stage in the ego-undoing process.

It is also upon reaching the Anahata Chakra that we begin to hear the Aum, Nada, or Grace vibration -- the ever-present echo of God's Voice calling us to return to Purusha Awareness. In Sanskrit, the word Anahata means "unstruck sound" in reference to the Cosmic Vibration, which has no physical cause or source. No objects are struck or struck together, in other words, to create the sound. For these and other reasons, the ruling deity of this chakra is Rudra -- or sometimes Vayu, the god of the wind (Om/Ruach) and the Holy Messenger of Indra/Shakti/Elohim. As explained in earlier posts, both of these Hindu deities personify the divine vibration, echo, or voice that restores us to, in Course terms, "reason," Spiritual Sanity, True Perception, or miracle-mindedness.

With regard to the Shatkona, Hinduism rightly teaches that the right-side-up triangle is ruled by Shiva -- the Christ-as-savior figure in that ancient religion. The upside-down triangle is ruled by Shakti -- the personified Creative Force of Divine Will, Spirit of Grace, or Elohim. Shakti -- or Shakti-Kundalini -- rules the upside-down triangle because it is the serpent-fire that burns away the illusory Prakriti in the dream of time. As the Prakriti dissipates, we behold more and more the Purusha, Christ Presence, Holy Light, or originating Divine Idea concealed within the illusion's projected forms. In Course terms, we begin to perceive the Face of Christ in everything.

As already explained, Shiva rules the Purusha triangle, while his wife, Parvati (Shakti-Kundalini), rules the Prakriti triangle. Often, these two forces are symbolized as male and female sexual organs, as in the images above and below. When thusly portrayed, they do NOT represent the male and female energies joining to create. Being ego-manifested opposites, the concepts of "male" and "female" are NOT of God or involved in Perfect Creation. The same ego-distorted idea (as I think I've explained) is commonly applied to the Yin-Yang symbol as well.

The idea the joined lignum and yoni actually represents is this: Shiva/Christ upwardly penetrates Parvati/Kundalini to fertilize the "Cosmic Egg" of inverted perception (Prakriti) with the "seed" that makes rebirth as the Purusha possible. That "seed" is the Tao -- the sound and light the Holy Spirit (our realized Higher Self) employs to gently guide our ego-deluded minds out of  the dream. To lead us along the True Path or Tao, Shiva and Parvati "join" to produce Ganesh, the elephant-headed remover of obstacles, and Skanda/Karthikeya, the spiritual warrior aspect of Christ-the-Redeemer. Like Lakshmi and Sarasvati, Ganesh and Skanda are Hindu personifications of the Blood and Water Rays Jesus (as Christ) "brought forth" to activate the Atonement Plan.

Does that explanation make sense? I hope so, because Jesus says pretty much the same thing in Chapter 14 of the Gospel of John, which I'll translate into simple language in an upcoming post.

I hope you take away from this discussion just how universal the symbols of salvation really are when they are interpreted correctly. In Catholicism, for example, the Satan-slaying aspect of Christ is portrayed as the Archangel Michael.

For Protestants, Orthodox Christians, and some Muslims, the same role is filled by George of Lydda (a.k.a. Saint George the dragon-slayer).

In the Rider-Waite Tarot, the Christ-as-spiritual-warrior concept is depicted on THE CHARIOT card. Note the incredible symbolism in the image below, not the least of which is the red lignum-yoni emblem on the front of the chariot. The black-and-white sphinxes in the foreground represent the choice we must make between the firm forces of light (yin) and the yielding forces of darkness (yang). It's hard to see in this image, but the drawn-back curtains atop the chariot are covered in six-pointed stars.

Before we move on, let me emphasize that the union of Purusha and Prakriti is STRICTLY symbolic and spiritual. Having no bodies and, therefore, no genitals, Shiva and Parvati do NOT engage in actual sexual congress, as (misleadingly) suggested by the Yab-Yum posture of Tantric Yoga (shown below).

The joining of Purusha and Prakriti has NOTHING to do with the sex act. In a similar vein, sexual energy can NOT be transmuted into Kundalini, as practitioners of Tantra and Sex Magick erroneously profess. In sections cut from the original dictations of the Course, Jesus explains that the sexual impulse arising from the Ego Subconscious covers or blocks the natural miracle-impulse in the underlying Soul Subconscious. He used slightly different words, but that's the gist of what he says. He also indirectly advocates the Hindu practice of Brahmacharya, which permanently "uproots" the sexual impulse.

Jesus also says (as do the Old Testament and most genuine gurus) that engaging in non-reproductive sexual coupling, however spiritually motivated, defiles God's Inner-Altar within us and our partners. That Inner-Altar is the dwelling place of the Purusha in our Spiritual Bodies, Temples, or Chalices. That Spiritual Body, Temple, or Chalice IS the upward-pointing triangle of the six-pointed star.

Let's now look at another symbolic depiction of the Tao or Way, which is rarely (if ever) interpreted correctly. That symbol is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Like most accurate depictions of the Sacred Heart, the one below shows flames at the top of the heart, shooting upward. Rising out of these "purgatorial" fires is a cross. As I've just explained, the cross represents both the Tau and the Tao -- or Christhood and the Path or Way to Christhood.

If we rightly view the icon as a map, the key would read as follows:

Heart = Anahata Chakra, the Inner-Altar where the Purusha dwells

Thorns = chitta and grievances preventing Anahata Realization

Lance + Wound = the "forgiveness" help available through the Blood and Water Rays

Flames at top =  Atmic Consciousness or "Purgatory" -- the next step on the path of purification

Cross = Christ Consciousness or True Perception -- the final step in the At-one-ment process

As a map of the final three steps in the At-one-ment process, the Sacred Heart icon belongs at the center of the Seal of Solomon, where it just happens to fit like a glove.

One of the best-known representations of the Sacred Heart is by Pompeo Batoni, an Italian painter who lived from 1708 to 1787. In his painting, Batoni strove to capture the scene described by Sister Mary Margaret Alacoque, the French nun to whom Jesus first revealed the Sacred Heart symbol in 1673.

Sister (now Saint) Mary Margaret described her experience as follows:

The Divine Heart was presented to me in a throne of flames, more resplendent than a sun, transparent as crystal, with this adorable wound. And it was surrounded with a crown of thorns, signifying the punctures made in it by our sins, and a cross above signifying that from the first instant of His Incarnation, […] the cross was implanted into it […].

Her account is, of course, filtered through the dark lens of sin, guilt, and suffering, as well as the ingrained and erroneous beliefs that 1) Jesus suffered and died for our sins and 2) suffering and sacrifice are the means by which we must purge ourselves of sin. As Jesus explains in the Course, the thorns signify the grievances that defile the Inner-Altar, thereby depriving us of God's Love and Grace. We remove those thorns through the practice of True Forgiveness. That the cross was implanted in his heart from the moment of his incarnation simply means he was scheduled to achieve Christhood (and do his part in God's Plan) in his lifetime as Jesus. It also suggests that the same potential exists within all of us.

In her account of the Sacred Heart visions, Sister Mary Margaret also said:

And He [Christ] showed me that it was His great desire of being loved by men and of withdrawing them from the path of ruin that made Him want to manifest His Heart to men, with all the treasures of love, of mercy, of grace, of sanctification and salvation which it contains, in order that those who desire to render Him and procure Him all the honour and love possible might themselves be abundantly enriched with those divine treasures of which His heart is the source.

This part of her narrative is much more consistent with the Course. It's also why she was mocked by the others in her order and denounced as a heretic by the Vatican for more than a century after her death. As an interesting aside, the life and experiences of Sister Mary Margaret and Sister Faustina, to whom Jesus appeared with the streaming Blood and Water Rays, are so uncannily similar, it's as if the two women were living the same life in different time periods. That is, in fact, possible, as I'll explain when we get around to reincarnation.

In modern-day Catholicism, the Sacred Heart of Jesus represents not only “God’s boundless and passionate love for mankind” (which is true, in a sense), but also "Christ’s long-suffering love and compassion for sinful humanity" (which would be true, if the words long-suffering and sinful were removed). The standard prayer to the Sacred Heart reads as follows:

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, filled with Infinite Love;

broken by our ingratitude and pierced by our sins, yet loving us still;

accept the consecration we make to Thee of all that we are and all that we have.

Take every faculty of our souls and bodies, only day by day draw us nearer and nearer to Thy Sacred Heart;

and there as we shall hear the lesson, teach us Thy Holy Way.

The prayer misses the mark by such a narrow margin, it's almost painful. If not for the second line, the prayer would, in fact, be spot-on. Nowhere in Sister Mary Margaret's account did Jesus say his heart is “broken by our ingratitude and pierced by our sins.” This is the BIG LIE the Ego Mind wants us to believe, so we'll be too afraid or too ashamed to seek the help of the Atonement powers.

Let me sign off by sharing a powerful affirmation I've only just started repeating in meditation.

I AM NOT A BODY;

I AM THE PURUSHA,

A SPIRITUAL BEING

IN A STATE OF PURE AWARENESS AND GRACE,

AS PERFECT, HOLY, AND INNOCENT

AS GOD CREATED ME IN THE BEGINNING.

Until we meet again outside the Golden Circle, Namaste and God bless!