Today's Card: Page of Wands

I don't always want to wrestle with blogger formatting to get all the cards in but I will share my present card.
 Page of wands (Reversed) can be taken many ways but I like to think that it means a time of great creative energy is about to burst forth but that energy may not be quite as great as it would have been had the card been upright.
 The upright and reversed distinction is arbitrary in readings. Some people use different meanings some don't. I am still relatively new to the Tarot and as I keep digging into them and learning I'll come to a definitive opinion eventually but for now I remain unsure.
 Wands is the suit of Air,in Jungian thinking Intuition.

The Age of Antichrist

The enlightenment revealed great knowledge about the physical world. Unfortunately it also brought about materialism and spiritual death.

The Gnostics teach that there are three fundamental kinds of people,
The Hylic (Material),the Psychic (Psychological),and the Pneumatic (Spiritual).

With the enlightenment came a emphasis on the Hylic, to a lesser extent the Psychic, and a total denial of the Pneumatic.

Why do people wait days in line braving the cold rain/snow for the latest ipad or sometimes get trampled to death in pursuit of whatever trinket on BLACK friday?*

Because materialism is the new religion.

Due to this development  I feel sad for my fellow man because I know from personal experience that owning more and more stuff does not lead to happiness but despair.

In the Tarot the representation of materialism is the devil card.

The devil card has a pentacle pointing down.

The pentacle pointing down according to the famous white magician Eliphas Levi means mater over spirit.

Whether we know it or not materialism is the philosophy of the left hand path, of the devil himself.

Therefore I think it can be rightly surmised that this is an age of antichrist.

Just as the Jews have decided that a messiah must come in an age rather than in a person so many of us Gnostic Christians believe that along with the incarnation of the Aeon Christos came an age of faith called Pisces. That age is coming to an end and with it I believe we have temporarily transitioned to an age of antichrist.

Thankfully this dying of the old age of faith that comes with evil returning will soon give way to the Age of Aquarius,the age of Magic! An age when people will want more than mere faith but will also turn away from satan,turn away from materialism!

Light

The Way and the Name of the Nameless,the Knowledge of the Unknowable

"The way that can be told,
Is not the constant way;
The name that can be named
It not the eternal name."

-Lao Tzu
 

"He is the invisible Spirit, of whom it is not right to think of him as a god, or something similar. For he is more than a god, since there is nothing above him, for no one lords it over him. For he does not exist in something inferior to him, since everything exists in him. For it is he who establishes himself. He is eternal, since he does not need anything. For he is total perfection. He did not lack anything, that he might be completed by it; rather he is always completely perfect in light. He is illimitable, since there is no one prior to him to set limits to him. He is unsearchable, since there exists no one prior to him to examine him. He is immeasurable, since there was no one prior to him to measure him. He is invisible, since no one saw him. He is eternal, since he exists eternally. He is ineffable, since no one was able to comprehend him to speak about him. He is unnameable, since there is no one prior to him to give him a name.
"He is immeasurable light, which is pure, holy (and) immaculate. He is ineffable, being perfect in incorruptibility. (He is) not in perfection, nor in blessedness, nor in divinity, but he is far superior. He is not corporeal nor is he incorporeal. He is neither large nor is he small. There is no way to say, 'What is his quantity?' or, 'What is his quality?', for no one can know him. He is not someone among (other) beings, rather he is far superior. Not that he is (simply) superior, but his essence does not partake in the aeons nor in time. For he who partakes in an aeon was prepared beforehand. Time was not apportioned to him, since he does not receive anything from another, for it would be received on loan. For he who precedes someone does not lack, that he may receive from him. For rather, it is the latter that looks expectantly at him in his light.
"For the perfection is majestic. He is pure, immeasurable mind. He is an aeon-giving aeon. He is life-giving life. He is a blessedness-giving blessed one. He is knowledge-giving knowledge. He is goodness-giving goodness. He is mercy and redemption-giving mercy. He is grace-giving grace, not because he possesses it, but because he gives the immeasurable, incomprehensible light."

- The Secret Revelation of St. John


"Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
 
-John 14:6

"I and the Father are one."

-John 10:30

Christos is the salvaic Aeon which is literally the salvaic aspect of the Unknown Father and depending on the myth the first emanation from him,the Son. Obviously Christos incarnated as the man Jesus Christ.

This does not mean that only christians can be saved it means that all people who are saved, or liberated, do so through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, The Aeon (or god) Christos the salvaic aspect of the ONE.

No one comes to the Unknown Father but by Christos regardless of religion.  Christos with the help of his consort Holy Sophia (Holy Wisdom) grants gnosis about the Unknowable.

J.R.R. Tolkein's Gnostic Cosmogony

J.R.R. Tolkein's cosmogony called "Ainulindalë" and found in the "The Silmarillion" is strikingly similar to the Gnostic cosmogony.

Tolkein said that he was not making up a story but rather he had a very real sense that he was DISCOVERING something inside.

With that in mind in the context of Jungian theory its no surprise that his origin story for the gods (Who incidentally emanated from a single being beyond them with the title Ilúvatar the ‘Father of All’, also called ‘Eru – “the One, He that is Alone”’) and the universe is so similar to others.

  There are primordial images in all of us that can be accessed through active imagination,dreams,and other altered states of consciousness. These Archetypes transcend all languages,cultures,and time.

  The Unknown Father of ALL is within and always speaking. The human race is forgetful but we can learn to listen and find true Gnosis.

Listen to "Ainulindalë"-

Today's Card: Page of Pentacles

Finally did a general PPF reading ,been distracted all day, but don't feel like wrestling with blogger formatting right now so I'm just posting today's card which is the Page of Pentacles!
 Pentacles is the suit of Earth,in Jungian terms Sensation.
Dreams,dreams,dreams. Time to begin. The energy is flowing!

A Simple Gnostic Ritual and Prayer for All Hallows Eve

A short simple ritual and prayer for the departed Saints who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven for this All Hallows Eve.

Light a big candle with three wicks or alternatively three candles.

When using thee candles it is preferable that the middle one be slightly taller than the others representing the Unknown Father and the two be side by side representing Christos and Sophia his consort but this is hardly necessary.

 As you light the first wick say,"Nous" the second "Christos", and the third "Pistis Sophia" .

Then Pray:

"Great Invisible Spirit and Holy Mother Barbelo, guide and watch over the spirits of all those who have departed from the World of Forms, and establish them in the communities of the realms of unity and perfection."

*Sign of the Cross* Nous, Christos, Pistis Sophia. Amen.

(Alternatively say your own prayer.)

All Hallows Eve is also Samhain and its a good idea after this little ritual of respect to consider not only the dead Saints but also the dying year and its beginning of transformation into a new year reborn.

As I said in the last post this is a time for deep transformation and remembering those who have transformed before us!

What is Halloween to me Besides the Wonderful Costumes and Candy?

What is Halloween to me besides the wonderful costumes and candy?

First let me say as I have before that I walk a fine line between Christianity and Paganism these days that makes me acceptable to neither.

Regardless All Hallows Eve is both a remembering of the Saints who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven and Samhain,the beginning of the darker days of the year.

In a kind of magical way this is a day to remember all the Saints of the Unknown Father who have departed to go up to one of the heaven's whatever religion they might come from through the Aeon Christos and to commemorate the beginning of the death of the year.

Like the Death card coming up in a Tarot reading though the death of the year is NOT a sign of end but a sign of new beginnings as fall then winter will give way to Spring and rebirth!

Its a time for deep transformation and remembering those who have transformed before us!

Read the Moment

"They (the disciples) said to him:
"Tell us who you are that we may believe in you."

He replied:

"You read the face of the sky and of the earth,
drawing your own conclusions,
but you do not recognize the one who stands before you,
and you do not know how to read this moment."

-The Gospel of Thomas,saying 91

"The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.

He replied,

“When evening comes, you say,
‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’
and in the morning,
‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’
You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."

-Matthew 16:1-3

I Am a Great Fool, A Sleepy Man, A Forgetful Spark

 I recently read in the book ,"The Fool's Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot," that I was looking at the Fool's journey backwards and I had a "WOW" moment.

I KNOW I don't know all there is and may get some ,if not most, of this wrong but this is where I am right now so bear with me.

For those who don't know the Tarot is broken up in to two groups and is 78 cards.

The first group is the Major Arcana and includes the famous cards like the Fool,Death,the devil,Judgement,The Lovers,The Magician,e.t.c. and is 22 cards.

The other is the 56 card lower arcana and depending on the deck may not contain much rich symbolism but thankfully my Radiant Rider-Waite Deck does.

Ok so each card of the Major Arcana is numbered 1 through 22 with the Fool being 0.

The Journey is the fool going "DOWN" the path towards enlightenment and the 22 cards are levels basically ,of course I'm no expert and could be slightly wrong about certain things as you'll soon learn first hand, so I thought the levels started from 0 and went down chronologically to 1,2,3,4,e.t.c. but what I read made me realize that they start with the fool at 0 and go !!UP!! from 22 to 1 then to 0 only the blind fool at that point becomes the HOLY FOOL.

It all makes so much more sense now because Gnosticism teaches that we are creations of a lower emanation of the Unknown Father named Jehovah but the Unknown Father gave a piece of himself to each of us called the Divine Spark that is within. Later he sent Jesus Christ to show us the way and reveal as much as is possible for our finite minds to comprehend of the Unknown Father through His Life and Teachings.

With this in mind we have the ability to move up the Kabbalistic tree of life to the Crown,Up the Fool's journey to get back to the Source because we are many steps away from the Source. We are ,according to the tarot, 22 emanations down from the Source more or less meaning we are many states of consciousness removed from Him.

To sum up I saw the fools journey as beginning at 0 and going to 1 which is the Magician but actually it starts at 0 and goes to 22 which is the World and as you go up each level makes more sense tell you've reached the Magician and then go past it to become the Holy Fool in union with the Divine Oneness which is enlightenment and at death liberation.

If your compassionate ,much as the bodhisattvas who vow to use their enlightenment to help others rather than wait to die so they may take their place within the oneness, you come back down and assume the role of the magician but your still the Holy Fool.

How blind I have been, how asleep, how forgetful but I am beginning to see, I am slowly waking up, I am starting to remember.

I see a great and sublime symbolism in the concept of "0" being both at the beginning and end of the Fool's journey because the symbol for infinity in mathematics going all the way back to 1655 is ∞.

I should remember that the greatest religious truths are often paradoxes.

A mystic who has attained a high level of union with the Divine often speaks in paradoxes and wears the title of Holy Fool with joy.

My greatest goal is to become nothing more or less than a Holy Fool.

*Update*
A great,sleepy forgetful fool indeed.
I've looked at the cards before but how could I have forgotten that The Magician card has the infinity symbol above his head?
The blind fool becomes the Holy Fool!

Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot: The World

I have finally gotten to the meditative part of a book I'm reading called, "The Fool's Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot" and so for the rest of the week/weekend ,when I'm not doing a reading, I'm going to be meditating on the World and the 32 path on the Tree of Life,

"I am not of this world, but a child of the beyond. My home is afar, and I long for the house of my Father. May I rightly commence the journey of return. I consecrate my physical,emotional,mental,and intuitive faculties to the accomplishment of the great work. May the senses of my body, the feelings of my emotions, the thoughts of my mind, and the insights of my intuition serve the great work.
There is no part of me that is not of the gods. I resolve to regard all incidents in my life as a portion of the dialogue between my self and the Self. May every part of my being, and every act of my living, be dedicated to the purpose of return to the home of my Father."

There is more than just that meditation of course.

 I encourage you to pick up a copy but full disclosure this is a referral link and by ALL means buy from somewhere else if you like (Making money is not a priority at all but making a few amazon bucks for more books would be helpful) : The Fool's Pilgrimage: Kabbalistic Meditations on the Tarot

A Fine Line

These days I walk a fine line between Christianity and Paganism. Because I do I am acceptable to neither.

Because I am primarily interested in the western mysteries the Christians would call me an evil Witch. If I were interested in the far eastern mysteries they would simply call me a Hindu or a Buddhist.

Because Jesus Christ is the center of my religion the pagans would call me an evil monotheist.

In reality I have more in common with the Hindu Monist.

Lao Tzu Speaks

A Secret Doctrine

"Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx, in the monstrous or marvelous paintings which interpret to the faithful of India the inspired pages of the Vedas, in the cryptic emblems of our old books on alchemy, in the ceremonies practiced at reception by all secret societies, there are found indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed."

-Eliphas Levi

A Blind Fool Learning to See

I see my ego manifest everywhere.

For example I unconsciously make snarky comments in facebook threads when issues that are dear to me are attacked but I consciously know that I DON'T know all there is,that the reasons people form certain opinions that I may not like are varied because life is complicated. The wise man remains silent.

In information heavy conversations involving statistics,meanings of words, possible motivations,historical events e.t.c. there I might know better than another but often I really haven't formed a solid conscious opinion one way or the other in regards to the broader issue yet I still make a snarky comment. Even an overtly angry comment.

These comments are a reflex of my ego and made without thinking. If I thought very carefully about everything I said and reflected on where my anger came from before hand I would likely not say anything at all.

The good news is that now this is much less common for me and its getting a little less so everyday still I have this overwhelming feeling that the choice of having a facebook page or a blog at all is ego driven.

I must deny my ego control if I am ever to get well and unite with divinity.

I am just a blind fool on a journey towards becoming a Holy Fool.

I am just a man at the roots of the Tree of Life climbing up the trunk towards the Crown.

I am just a Gnostic searching for the Divine Spark within.

Today's PPF Reading

Past


I was overwhelmed by information and unable to make a decision. This is a common problem for me.
 My mind is so full of trivia ,Ive theoretically won thousands watching Jeopardy, and that can lead to too many variables. Confusion was easy to come by.
 Finding my center is what I must always do and by that I mean remembering my core values and making a decision based off of where they point me. If I don't I make poor choices.







Present


 I feel that my creativity is being stifled by my circumstances. I know its not the fault of those around me though,its my inability to prioritize and do what I most value.
 Beyond that on an even more meaningful level the card is reminding me that I feel isolated. That is in large part due to my mental illness and the inability to trust that is a result of it but I think what God is saying is now is the time to begin to put some plans to socialize more into action. A first step into a bigger world is what I may most need right now.
 Its very interesting that I drew a card with a prominent pumpkin so close to Halloween. That may have some deeper significance I am not aware of as of yet.

Future


 I have encountered the Hierophant a couple times lately. To me the card signifies that I will need to accept the situation as it is and at least pay lip service to tradition and institutional norms.
 It may also ,when taking all three cards into account, mean that my indecision about whether or not to join a certain local non-dogmatic church to gain a community and the opportunity to socialize will finally come to an end and I will join.
 Of course I always find looking back that the future card never means quite what I think at the time I drew it. Usually its much more specific than I imagined.
  I should probably just be on the look out for a person or institution with religious or governmental authority and follow their traditions to have a good outcome in whatever it is I will face. That's the wisest course according to the cards.

Praise the One,the Infinite Light, the Unknow Father of All! Amen.

Holy Sophia

An Orthodox Icon. Sophia is more to us. She's no less than the bride of Jesus Christ. An Aeon of the Unknown Father,our Goddess in a way but also an aspect of the One.