An introduction to ideas of Alvin Boyd Kuhn by Alan Pert The Peace Forum
A Place to Share your Ideas.
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages    Log inLog in 
  GamesGames   

An introduction to ideas of Alvin Boyd Kuhn by Alan Pert

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    The Peace Forum Forum Index -> Personal Alchemy - The Way of The Peaceful Warrior
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
blackdog



Joined: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 252

PostPosted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:03 pm    Post subject: An introduction to ideas of Alvin Boyd Kuhn by Alan Pert Reply with quote

http://www-personal.usyd.edu.au/~apert/kuhn.html

Ancient Wisdom regained: an introduction to ideas of Alvin Boyd Kuhn by Alan Pert


Alvin Kuhn (Sept. 22, 1880-1963) was born on the ancestral farm near the hamlet of Upton,Franklin County, Pennsylvania, USA.For many years he taught languages in high school.He gained his Ph. D. in 1931 from Columbia University for a study of the Theosophical Society, founded by Helena Blavatsky in 1875.In his many writings,Kuhn's aim is to bring to light the real teachings of the ancient wisdom.He shows how the Christian Church, in the 3rd century, began to systematically eliminate the ancient wisdom teachings, plunging the Occidental world into a Dark Age which still envelopes us today.Ironically, the ancient wisdom is contained in the Bible, available to those who have the keys, as provided by Kuhn.He elucidates the ancient wisdom symbolism with reference to the Bible and other scriptures and mythologies.

Kuhn provides penetrating insight into the human condition and the cosmic purpose of human life.We sorely need an understanding of the ancient wisdom in order to restore our earthly life to its true glory and purpose, and Kuhn provides the keys.

The core of the ancient wisdom

Central to the ancient wisdom is the concept of the divine spark or seed buried within each person.It was the purpose of the ancient mysteries to bring to life this divine spark so that it would illuminate life on this earth.This divine spark was symbolised by various figures at different times and in different places.Their names were Horus, Orpheus, Dionysus,Mithra,Krishna, Adonis,Tammuz, Hercules and so on.They were all "pagan" Christs.The philosophers of the ancient world knew that these figures were symbolic, and not historical men.

Some 2,000 years ago in the area of the eastern Mediterranean, the divine soul or spark within was called the Christ (from karast or krist, Egyptian for the annointed mummy).Early Christianity was a re-statement of the ancient wisdom."...Christians of any intelligence during the first two centuries at least did not regard their movement as the bearer of the first light into the heathen darkness, but only the republication of very ancient truth."(1)Kuhn quotes Augustine and Eusebius to support his claim.

"The indwelling god is himself being brought to birth within the womb of humanity.Each individual is gestating a divinity within the deeps of his own nature.Christianity has fervently exhorted us to look into the empyrean to find the unapproachable God.All the while the infant deity slumbers unheeded within the heart.Christianity has largely nullified the force of St. Paul's almost frantic cry to us: 'Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is within you?' "(2)

Kuhn gets to the heart of the matter

Philosophers such as Voltaire, Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell and others have made insightful critiques of repressive Christianity.However, they have not got to the nub of the issues or offered viable alternatives.Kuhn does both by clearly explaining the real meaning of the ancient wisdom.There are many works supposedly about the "ancient wisdom", e.g. by Annie Besant, and Geoffrey Ashe, but none I have seen get to the heart of things as does Kuhn.(Note: the real ancient wisdom is not the same as the "perennial philosophy" of Aldous Huxley and others.The perennial philosophy is a selective use of Eastern concepts which pales into insignificance beside the real ancient wisdom.)

Ancient cosmology

The supreme Creator is given various names, such as the First Cause, the Great Spirit, God, the One. Creative energy emanates from the One and manifests in various ways, depending on the plane or level of existence that is involved.Kuhn says:

"The gods of primeval religion were the active manifest powers, faculties, organs of God himself [sic].Nature was his body, elemental forces the agents of his operative economy, universal mind his thinking faculty and ultimate beneficence his spiritual heart.The ancient system of wisdom thought it not blasphemy to delineate the organic structure of deity to explain to human grasp the cause and nature of the world.Reverence was not withheld from even the lowest instrumentalization of Godhood.And God organically apprehended was to be better adored than God as an abstract 'nonity'...

"But the astute Greeks kept the one without foregoing the other.They reverenced the One as beyond the reach of thought, yet portrayed his [sic] emanations in the field of manifestation.And they ranked themselves as his sons.They deemed it not dishonoring to deity to recognize his being in all things.They saw him in nature, and not as abstracted from nature.And they studied nature as the living garment of God's immanence."(3)

Many cultures compare the Creator to the Sun.The Sun pours out its life giving rays, as does the Creator.In order to exist, all life absorbs a tiny amount of energy from the Sun.The Creator is our spiritual Sun.There have been various solar gods, such as Ra, Appollo, and Christ.

Creation

"To awake and come into being it [the One] must by force of logic perform an operation upon its own nature which is the first ground of manifestation.It can not create a universe in which to live and suffer experience without breaking its Unity apart into duality.For it must become Consciousness on the one side, in order to know what and how to create, and Matter on the other, if it is to have material with which to create!So it must split its primal Oneness into a dualism which however is still subsumed under the unity.It becomes two in one or the One in two.The One has not become Two, but a twoness.

"It virtually can not create without throwing itself into the condition of being at a tension between two aspects of itself, on the strength of which tension it can exert its inchoate energies.It must therefore manifest itself as the two ends of a polarity, positive and negative.It must become polarized in relation to itself; and so it takes the double aspected characterization of spirit and matter, male and female,consciousness and vehicle, function and instrument, attraction and repulsion, visible and invisible, real and actual....Since there is nothing of which it can be conscious
save itself, the aim of Life is thus ever to become more Self-conscious!Therefore it must set itself as object over against itself as subject, and down the ages and the cycles ever thus contemplate itself.It is the seeing eye and the thing seen, as all profound esoteric philosophy asserts."(4)

The Law of Incubation

There are many levels or planes of existence or manifestation."There are terrestrial and celestial worlds (as Paul says), noumenal and phenomenal realms, physical and ethereal planes, material
and spiritual bodies, heavens, fairy-lands, underworlds, hells, limbos,Isles of the Blessed,Elysian Fields, the meadows of Aarru-Hetep and homes on high.And the beings on the ranges from high divinity down to man are the gods of ancient mythology."(5) The materialist world view completely misses all the other worlds that exist, and only knows a dead mechanical world. William Blake called it "Single vision & Newton's sleep".Single vision has crippled our life, turning it into a bleak vale of tears.We need to open the third eye and have multiple vision, then we will know the glories of creation.

"Life is not static; it is generative,reproductive,forward-moving.It creates anew, in its turn, at its level, and passes the stream of creative forces on down the line.Thus the succession of waves of projection runs down the scale, each one carrying the formative force one surge further out.On and on it goes, establishing the kingdoms of nature and the living citizens on them.The contiguous planes form a link of connection from top to bottom of the series, and this is the golden chain of life.And each level bears a definite relation to its neighbor on either side....It may be called the great Law of Incubation."(6)

"Under its terms each plane is mother to the life on the plane above it and father to that of the plane below it.It receives from above the seed germs of higher life and harbors them in the womb of its soil, or matter,gestates them and eventually gives them their new birth.This is the function of motherhood. And matter (Latin mater, mother) is the universal mother.But, having received from above, it also gives the impulse to the order below; and as giver it is active, aggressive, generative-the father function.Feminine to life above, masculine to life beneath, it is the link and bridge between two worlds."(7)

At each stage of descent the primal impulse weakens in its force.Each lower level is more dense than the one above it, so the power of the voltage must be lowered.The living bodies at each level act like electric transformers, changing a high current into lesser currents."The Greek philosophers say in this connection that 'the gods distribute divinity',scattering its higher units abroad from plane to plane, the units multiplying in number, but diminishing in power, as the stream flows on.This is what the ancient theology connotes by 'the river of life' ".(Cool

"The gods pour out their life for the vivifying of all lower beings, and the latter partake of this bounty or 'grace' to the measure of their receptivity.Nothing other than this is meant by the 'shed blood' of the gods, given for the life of the worlds.All old theologies of the world aver that the blood of the gods, or of God, mixed with the clay of earth, makes the 'red earth' which is given as the etymological signification of Adam in Hebrew, i.e., man....Deity mixed together spirit and matter to make man."(9)

By the Law of Incubation, the lowest ranks of gods must plant their seeds " in the bodies of humans and win their next cyclical generation of divine life in that ground!"(10)The soul of man is the seed of divinity, gone to its "death" in the soil of the human kingdom."The greatest truth that can be told to mortals is that their bodies are each the gestating womb of a god.As said St Paul, the Christ is being 'formed within' each mortal body."(11) "Plato reports the Demiurgus in the notable speech to the legions of devas in the Timaeus as saying that 'whatever is immortal and divine' in the human makeup, 'of that I will furnish the seed and the beginning.It is your business to do the rest;to weave together mortal and immortal natures.' "(12)

"If, in sum, God is to multiply himself, his tree of life must reproduce on its branches a numerous progeny, each child bearing the potentiality of renewing the parent life in its fulness, and of carrying its eternal unfoldment one step ahead....God is everywhere, within and without; but his son, the Christos, is only within.If he is not sought there, he will not be found."(13)

Dismemberment of the God

"On the day of Advent heaven's arches rang with the proclamation of peace and amity among men on the basis of the fact that a fragment of divinity had been lodged in the holy of holies of the temple of each human body.Emanuel had come to dwell with man.But the exuberant joyousness of all mortal hearts over the event has been clogged.No longer the substance but only the shadow of the truth remains to kindle Yuletide ecstasy.The allegory of the birth in the stable or cave was devised to keep mankind in exultant memory of its divinity.Alas! It speaks no more of our divinity.It extols the godly nature of but one....

"No amount of adoration accorded to a newborn king in Judea will avail to redeem a single wayward heart if the Christ Child is not eventually domiciled in the breast of the individual.The King of Righteousness must be cradled in the manger of each human self ere the myth can work its magic in the world."(14)

There are various accounts from the ancient world of the god being dismembered.Osiris is the prototype.He was cut up into fourteen pieces by Typhon or Set (the destructive force), to allow for his entry into matter.Isis, the great mother, gives birth to Horus,son of Osiris and the god risen into our earthly human life.Dionysus was torn apart then mader whole by Demeter.When seen in this light, the meaning of the crucifixion is obvious.It was not an historical event, but a retelling of the age old story of the death of the god to allow it to enter the human plane of existence.In fact, the crucifix only came into being with Pope Gregory late in the 6th century.For their first 500 hundred years Christians used the cross as their major symbol.The cross is an ancient symbol depicting the union of spirit and matter.

It was common for bread to be used as symbol of the god's body and divine powers to be transferred to humans.The bread has to be broken and then multiplied in order to reach all humans:

"But Christian intelligence is not aware that in the heart of its own chief rite of formalism this great doctrine lives in unspected completeness.St. Paul makes a specific announcement of it in I Corinthians (11:23):

'I pass on to you what I received from the Lord himself, namely, that on the night that he was betrayed the Lord Jesus took a loaf, and after thanking God he broke it, saying "This means my body broken for you; do this in memory of me." '

"Here is the fragmentation of the god announced at the heart of the Christian Eucharist!The body of the Messiah broken for us! The main symbol in all Christian ritual is the breaking of a piece of bread into fragments and distributing them out among the communicants! "(15)

The divine soul within

God has projected a ray of his own life into humans."In man the divine seed is the Christos."(16)
"The cosmic God is hardly an object of worship by humanity; but that segmented portion of infinite Being that is tabernacled within the flesh of mortals that is the actual divinity assigned to receive the attention and homage of mankind."(17)

In Plato's Timeaus and other ancient documents twelve junior gods, who were sparks of the eternal Flame of cosmic mind, came to earth to lift up humans from their animal nature to realize their divine souls."Our earthly task, according to St. Paul, is to link together the two natures in 'one new man', bringing to an end in a final 'reconciliation' 'the battle of Armageddon', the aeonial warfare between the carnal mind of the animal and the spiritual mind of the god."(1Cool St. Paul said "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is within you?"

"Religion is far more than a posture of mystical feeling; it was in origin a series of codes, principles and practices given by the demi-gods to early mankind to awaken the torpid genius of our actual divinity."(19) It is essential knowledge for humans to press forward their evolutionary development from the animal nature to the divine nature.Ignorance and folly almost banished this knowledge from all humans."Our present business is to struggle to regain that lost paradise of knowledge.We must work again to the recognition of our high cosmic mission, and revifivy the decadent forms of a once potent religious practique, based on knowledge."(20)

The concept of the god within is well stated in The Litany of the Sun, inscribed on the Tombs of the Kings of ancient Thebes:

"The Kingly Osiris [the Christ] is an intelligent Essence.His Limbs conduct Him;His 'Fleshes' open the way for Him.Those who are born from him create Him.They rest when they cause the Kingly Osiris to be born.

"It is He who causes them to be born.It is he who engenders them.It is he who causes them to exist.His Birth is the Birth of Ra in Amenti [this world].He causes the Kingly Osiris to be born; He causes the birth of Himself."(21)

It must be understood that no human being is God and no human can ever be God.Using the Sun as an analogy, we can see that there is a tiny bit of Sun energy in plants and living creatures.No one in their right mind would claim that they were the Sun because they had this tiny Sun spark within.Similarly, there is a tiny bit of God energy in humans, but woe betide anyone who thinks that he is God.

Hades is the earth plane for the god

The ancient scriptures talk about the soul being trapped in the prison of the body.But the way out is not to disdain the body and seek a life of pure spirit."We can not escape our obligation to the animal who is lending us his body for our own advancement.We came hither to transfigure these brute bodies."(22)

According to Plato and the ancients, hades was not a place of punishment for departed human souls.It is this earth, which is the death of the divine soul.The gods came to die so that we mortals might live."Death" is a transition from one state to another.When humans have the right understanding, they can birth the god and thus uplift earthly existence.

As long as people are ignorant of their divine purpose, the gods are dead, and this earth has become hades or the underworld to the gods.When we awaken to the divine soul within, we bring it to life, and in the words of St. Paul "Death is swallowed up in victory."

Hell as a place of punishment in an after-life is simply a teaching of repression, widely used by the Churches.A just God does not deal out eternal punishment.The worst "punishments" we face are in this life.If we do not nurture the divine soul here and now, we punish ourselves by not achieving our true potential.

Weighed in the balance

An understanding of the ancient wisdom gives a correct understanding of Judgement.Judgement occurs here and now on this earth plane of existence.

"Neither above man with the angels, nor below him with the beasts, does moral responsibility reside.It inheres solely in the kingdom of man, who is poised, the only creature in evolution so placed, on the two arms of the balance between mind and matter.Man on the horizon is not only nailed on the cross of matter;he is being weighed on the scales of the balance, to see if his heart is so spiritualized as to be light as a feather!Man's heart against a feather, and his fate hanging thereon."(23)

The view that there is a once only Day of Judgement, to occur at an unknown time, abrogates human responsibility.It can cause unjustified fear, or a "drink and be merry tomorrow we die" approach to life.The symbolism of the ancient scriptures shows that man is the author of his destiny and is judged by his own actions.The ball is squarely in the court of man, and he must take responsibility for his actions.Humans can no longer afford to pass the moral buck.

The meaning of "satan" and sin

The divine soul "falls" to earth and incarnates in human beings.This is Lucifer, the light bringer, coming to earth.The divine soul becomes trapped in the animal body, and it is very easy for it to be overwhelmed by the animal nature.When then happens it becomes brutish and beastial or "satanic".This is the true meaning of the Beast 666 or Satan.But Christianity created a being of pure evil called "Satan".It's a perpetual puzzle to Christians why the all powerful God tolerates absolute evil.But it is a problem created by Christians themselves.God is absolute, beyond good and evil."Good" and "evil" are terms that apply to the human plane of existence.This view does not advocate moral relativism or an "anything goes" attitude.Killing, stealing, lying and so on are wrong and not to be advocated.Holding a view of the existence of absolute evil leads to the persecutions and intolerance that are all too prevalent in Christian history.

The divine soul needs the animal nature in order to progress.It needs an opponent to wrestle with so that it can develop its powers.William Blake wrote: "Without Contraries is no progression" (Marriage of Heaven and Hell).Christianity does not understand this dynamic process, and thereby makes it virtually impossible for the divine soul to achieve its evolutionary task.


No historical Jesus

"The Vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my Visions Greatest Enemy" (William Blake)

It is important to go beyond the idea of an historical Jesus so that we can get to the real meaning of Christianity and the ancient wisdom.There is no hard proof of any works that were written when Jesus was supposed to be alive.God was supposed to have appear as a man 2,000 years ago, yet no one bothered to write a thing about it at the time! Paul (c.3-c.64-68AD) makes no mention of an historical Jesus, and if anyone was to do so you expect it to be Paul.As Christianity was the religion for the Age of Pisces, it is not surprising that its origins are surrounded in mystery.Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, throws its mystifying veil over things.(An historical saviour is for the uninitiated masses, while the initiates know that the Christ is within.Christianity sowed confusion by losing the distinction between inner and outer teachings.)

Kuhn shows how absurd it is to think that the Logos could appear in a human being."The Logos is the infinite force that upholds the galaxies of countless solar systems and carries on their evolution....If the tiniest billionth of such a mighty force were infused somehow into the body of a man on this earth it would burn him to a crisp in a second."(24)

There is no problem in proving the existence of various people from ancient times, such as Plato, Aristotle, Julius Caesar, and so on.Why should there be a problem in proving the existence of one greater than these? Because there is so much controversy over an historical Jesus we are entitled to approach the question with a healthy skepticism.Kuhn makes the telling observation that the further away we get from the alleged Jesus, the greater is claimed to be the knowledge of him.(25)This is the reverse in cases of historical people.Real people are best known during their own lives, and as time passes memories fade and facts get distorted.In the first century Jesus was an airy and ethereal figure, yet centuries later people could describe his appearance, moods and motives in meticulous detail!One is entitled to probe the alleged historical reality.

Christian scriptures were based on the ancient wisdom, then the Christians destroyed the original manuscripts to hide the true origins of their creed.Gerald Massey in Ancient Egypt the Light of the World has shown that the story of Jesus is a retelling of the story of Horus, the prototype saviour god.This prototype had different names throughout the ancient world.The name Jesus can be traced to the Egyptian Iusa, which means God the son, the prince, the heir.There are some twenty or more figures bearing the name Jesus (Joshua, Jesse, Hosea, Isaiah, Isaac, Esau, Josiah, Joash,Jehoaz, Job, Jonah, Joel and others) in the Old Testament and outside of it.(26) Pictures of Jesus as a young bearded man clearly originate from Serapis, a Graeco-Egyptian saviour god.Blavatsky has shown that Chrestian was the name given to initiates in ancient Greece, long before the advent of the religion called Christianity.

The Christian mystic Anna Kingsford (1846-1888) has made a most pertinent comment on the historicity of Christ:
"Religion can never depend for its facts and its hopes on historical data.These, in the very nature of things, are
always questionable, and become more and more difficult to verify as the transit of centuries removes us from
the epoch to which they alone are related.The real events of religion are not of this world; its kingdom is
interior; its acts are all spiritual and essential.We ' must be born again' into another sphere, upon anothe plane,
converted from the material to the immaterial, before we can apprehend heavenly things."(The Perfect Way, or
the Finding of Christ by Anna (Bonus) Kingsford and Edward Maitland, 4th ed. 1909,p.345)

The assassination of President Kennedy shows how hard it is to verify historical events.This event happened only in 1963, within the memory of millions.His actual shooting was captured on film.Films and photos by various people at the scene have surfaced.Despite modern means of communication available at the time,such as television, newspapers, radio and telephones, there is still great dispute over who shot the President.Millions of words have been written and spoken about the shooting, yet there is no general agreement as to who was responsible and what the real facts are.Some are convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald did it by himself, while others are equally convinced that there was a conspiracy behind it.When there is so much disagreement over a modern event, how can anyone know for certain about an alleged occurrence 2,000 years ago?

Kuhn claims that ignorance and a desire to pander to the masses by Christianity caused the ancient wisdom to be distorted.I would argue that this distortion had to occur to meet the requirements of the Age of Pisces.Faith and belief are features of Pisces.Christianity had to promote impossible events in order to activate faith and belief over reason.Instead of interpreting the ancient mythos symbolically, the Christians took the mythos literally.They believed in a literal virgin birth, in the breaking of the laws of nature, in corpses coming to life, and so on.Tertullian said "I believe because it is impossible." It is faith, not reason, that can accept impossibilities.

The power of the divine essence within is a truly liberating concept.It means that humans are masters of their destiny and cannot be belittled when the truth is known.We have to realize our divine nature.This is a noble and uplifting task.Political Christianity was hell-bent on placing people in religious bondage, therefore they did their utmost to destroy the ancient truth.Christianity introduced the concept of sin to disempower the general population, and the Church monopolized all religious power.Thanks to writers such as Massey and Kuhn we can now understand the awesome truth of the ancient wisdom and expose the deceits of repressive Christianity.It is now the time to let the true light shine, and dispel eighteen centuries of superstition, idolatry and murky gloom.

A Bishop doesn't get it

On those few occasions when orthodox Christians venture to comment on the ancient mythos they make a regular hash of things.The Anglican Bishop of North Sydney, Paul Barnett, in his book The Truth About Jesus (1994, pp.136-7) tries to deny any link between the mythos of Jesus and that of Osiris.He says Osiris had been a pharoah and that "Osiris reigns over the underworld as a mummy." But Osiris was never a pharoah.He is the god who dies and is reborn as Horus.The Bishop calls the story of Isis and Osiris "grotesque" and it belongs to "an idolatrous Gentile cult." However, Isis is the Great Mother, the prototype of the Christian Mary.Then we are given three boo words which are supposed to make all and sundry shudder in their boots and cease serious study of the ancient mythos.The Bishop tells us that Jesus is not a "reanimated god over the nether regions; rather, he is alive for everyone." I beg to inform the good Bishop that these words apply with exactitude to Horus.

The Church begins the Dark Age

In the 3rd century the rot set in when Christianity discarded it roots.People didn't rush to Christianity in droves as they tell you in Sunday school. There was a terror campaign to eliminate the ancient wisdom and force people to become Christians. Thousands of temples and sacred groves were destroyed.Pagan worship was outlawed,often on pain of death.In 529 Emperor Justinian closed down the last school of philosophy.The Church of Rome ruled for over a thousand years.It was the Church which instigated the Dark Ages.We still have the legacy with us today in a totally distorted view of life.

There is still much discussion over the origins of Christianity.Little wonder, as some of the early fathers made things as murky as possible in order to hide the origins.Kuhn shows how Christianity began as a restatement of the ancient wisdom, then the teachings were terribly distorted.The official four gospels were written by many hands, and the first time they were quoted was c.185AD by Irenaeus.Justin Martyr in 145-149 names no names nor gospels.Many works of Origen, an early Christian, were destroyed and later he was anathematized (i.e. cursed and excommunicated)In 391AD Christians burnt 700,000 scrolls from the 700 year old library at Alexandria.The Bible was closely guarded by the Church for 1,000 years.Even the Church of Rome today claims to possess sole truth.

The decisive change in the teachings was to banish the concept of the divine soul within all, and replace it with an historical figure called Jesus.People were taught to worship this non-existent Jesus instead of nurturing their own divine soul.In one fell swoop the Church of Rome took the divine out of everyday life and this world.It turned a philosophy of liberation into a religion ofrepression and bondage.Noble and uplifting teachings were turned upside down and thoroughly perverted.Humans were turned into abject sinners who had to grovel for forgiveness.The true ancient wisdom can still be deciphered in the Bible, using the keys supplied by Kuhn to read the symbolism.Whatever strengths Christian concepts have, such as the death and rebirth of the god, they are due to its pagan roots. Despite Christian distortions, the underlying pagan philosophy has strong appeal at a subconscious level.

Man's ties to the divine natural order were torn asunder.For example, in 1023 King Canute made it illegal to "worship" the sun, moon, stars, tree,waterways and stones.The consequences were appalling.The inhumanity and brutality of the "Christian" Churches over the last 1800 years has been well documented: the inquisitions of torture and killing, the "witch" burnings, sexism and sex repression, destruction of indigenous people and their cultures, and support of harsh ruling elites.Also the supression of knowledge and the promotion of superstition.The Church put man out of balance, with his own divine nature and the divine cosmos all around.

Marriage of the Bride and the Lamb

Once the god has incarnated in the human body, it is up to humans to realize the divine presence in this world and life.Kuhn explains the process this way:

"The whole course of evolution on earth is designed to perfect the individualized humans, who are the crown of animal development.This perfection comes through the spiritualization of the gross animal nature by the impacting upon it of currents of intellectual and spiritual forces which gradually refine the lower self.When a certain degree of sublimation has been achieved the lower bodies become capable of affording free course to the influx of the higher influences, which then so transform the lower that a practical identity between the two is established.

"Greek mythology called it the union of Cupid and Psyche;in Egypt it was the embrace of Horus and Osiris; in Churchly language it is the marriage of the Bride and the Lamb.It was that welding at last in blissful harmony of the mortal and immortal elements.Of this ultimate union of male and female components, the body-soul with the spirit-soul, all marriage and sexual intercourse is only the outward sign and symbol.

"For its attainment the male and female natures in the individual must be 'married'; the centers below and those above the diaphragm must merge in interchange of activity.The wedding or welding of these two groups of energies will divinize human nature.For it will return man to his original androgyne state which obtained before the "fall" into physical generation, when he assumed the garb of the animal nature and put on the mask of personality."(27)

In alchemy this process is called the chymical wedding, between the King (spirit) and the Queen (soul). Anna Kingsford in The Perfect Way writes of the marriage between the soul and spirit.Once the soul has become purified or virgin, union with the (holy) spirit produces the Christ within.

The german mystic Angelus Silesius wrote:
"Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
If not within thyself ,thy soul will be forlorn."

Matter is not evil

Christianity says our animal nature is evil and has to be punished.It says the flesh must be mortified.Many Eastern teachings also see the animal nature as being evil and they cultivate non attachment to the flesh and escape into a world of pure spirit.These views do not accord with the ancient wisdom, as explained by Kuhn:

"But some strange quirk of philosophic revulsion against the function and nature of matter militated later to cause theologians to deem it a blasphemy to give God a body, parts and divisions.The mind could only be saved from defiling his purity by keeping him an empty abstraction.Unknowable and Absolute, he was to be kept ineffable.He was not to be dragged into the purlieus of mortal description, degraded into the semblance of a creation of man's low thought.

"But the astute Greeks kept the one without foregoing the other.They reverenced the One as beyond the reach of thought, yet portrayed his emanations in the field of manifestation.And they ranked themselves as his sons.They deemed it not dishonoring to deity to recognize his being in all things.They saw him in nature, and not as abstracted from nature.And they studied nature as the living garment of God's immanence."(2Cool

"Then spirit must love matter, and matter spirit!Soul must love body and body soul! Man, intellectual and spiritual, must love the world of matter.The voice and hands of pious unintelligent religionism may fly up in horror at the philosophical determinations that spring immediately into view in the wake of the obvious dialectic.And well they may, for, properly understood and held in a balanced rationale, the true envisagement of the elements of the problem enforces a view of these things that does indeed undo and reverse the poor twisted attitudes of orthodox befuddlement. The first dawn of welcome sanity to break upon the dark night of centuries of pitiable error is this cock's crow of the resurrected voice of philosophy proclaiming once again that spirit does love matter."(29)

"The symbolism of spirit as masculine and matter as feminine must be apprehended and rationalized as symbolism purely, and not tied to any reference to men and women in their personal identities. It is as gross a folly to think that because spirit is typed by the king, a male, every man is therefore a lord of spiritual light, as it is to make the error which the world has come all too close to doing, that because matter is typified by goddesses and women figures, every woman is therefore sunk in material aims.The mind or soul in each is sexless."(30)

"Orgies of historical asceticism, actuated by the overwhelming prepossession of the desirability of crushing the carnal self in the interests of the soul's purity, have been a pitiable delusion, drawing in their wake the sorrowful spectacle of self-mortification under the lash of misguided pietism.A proper philosophy would have erased or corrected the horror."(31)

"Sin" is to be enslaved by matter and the animal nature, thus losing all sight of spiritual development.There is no inherent "badness" in matter and the animal nature.Man must become the master of his animal nature if he is to progress.

Symbolism in the Bible is explained

Myths express the deeper meanings of life and the cosmic drama.We need to move beyond the limited rationalist attitude which can only see a myth as an "invented story". Myths use symbolic language or allegory.Proclus stated that the creative mind, or Logos, has placed symbols throughout the world and implanted in souls the power to respond to these symbols.Nature around us and the heavens above speak to us in symbols.Symbols speak to our imagination and those parts of the psyche beyond left brain logic.Those who want to influence others, such as advertisers, know very well the power of symbols, and use them often.

In the third century Christianity repudiated its pagan parentage.The ancient wisdom contained powerful truths about life and the cosmic purpose which could not be ignored.No one can just start up a new religion from scratch.The ancient mythologies were rewritten, then taken literally - a sure way to sow ignorance and confusion.The Church took away from the people the concept of the Christ as the god within, trying to hide it with literalism.A symbolic reading of the scriptures exposes the deceits of the Church and restores the liberating truth.Some examples follow.

The virgin birth.It's hard to believe that God would create a universe operating under reliable laws ( the only way to make a universe), then go ahead and break these laws to impress the masses like a conjurer on television or at a childs' party.The virgin birth is a case in point.It can be traced to ancient Egypt where Isis, the great Mother, found she was pregnant with Horus on August 23, the day the sun enters the zodiac sign of Virgo.How apt to designate the "conception" of the divine soul in matter with this symbolism.Virgo, an earth sign, is represented as a young woman holding an ear of wheat.In Egypt Virgo was called the "house of bread"(Beth-lehem in Hebrew).The god, symbolized by bread, is "food" for mortals.The human body, once it has been refined by the divine soul, gives birth to the Christ.

In the Egyptian mythos there are two divine sisters,Isis and Nephthys.An old source-name for Isis was Meri, basic for the Latin mare, the sea.The Egyptian plural of Meri was Merti.In Latin feminine form it became Mertae.In Hebrew it resolved into what was rendered in English as Martha.So even in the ancient Egyptian transaction there were present the two Maries, or Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus (Osiris).(32)

Slaughter of the innocents.Sober reflection deems it impossible that Herod could have ordered the death of all male babes.As those of his friends and supporters would be included, it would be an act of political suicide.There is no historical evidence for such a slaughter, not even among the Talmud Rabbis who hated the memory of Herod.There is a perfectly logical explanation.When the young, "innocent" divine soul comes into this world and the body it is under threat from the carnal nature.This event has been portrayed in many legends:as a babe Hercules was attacked by two serpents, which he destroyed; David fought the monster Goliath; St George and the dragon; Jack and the Giant.The alleged slaughter of the first- born in Egypt by order of the pharaoh was not historical, but another example of the same mythos.

The miracles are literalized spiritual myths and never objectively happened.The raising of Lazarus is a retelling of the rebirth of Osiris.The name Lazarus was derived from "Osiris" (33).Osiris, dies and is reborn as Horus.Christ walking on the water symbolizes the divine soul has subdued the lower nature.Water commonly signifies the human passions.Turning water into wine means that the lower nature has been transmuted into the divine nature.A literal belief in "miracles" is pure superstition.Natural law works no end of miracles to make man wonder, such as the rain, snow, the ocean, fire, green leaf, bud, flower, seed, death and life from death ever renewed.

The fall.Any so called "fall" is that of the divine soul "falling" into matter.This is not a negative event but a necessary stage in cosmic evolution.Just as electricity needs a physical machine to realize its potential, the divine soul needs the human body as a vehicle for its realization on this earth.The divine soul had to leave its "Garden of Eden" or paradisiacal realm of existence in order to come to the earth.The "fall" of Adam and Eve is a crude patriarchal mythos, intended to justify sexism and repression.

Judas.A persistent theme of ancient religious writings is the two stages of the evolving god : incarnation and resurrection.This is reflected in the many twofold designations, such as Sut (or Set)-Horus, Horus the Elder-Horus the Younger, Cain-Abel, Jacob-Esau, and Judas-Jesus.As part of the ritual drama, the god is "betrayed" into entering matter.Matter is the lowest level experienced by the god.After much struggle, the god is reborn to illuminate our earthly life.

Crucifixion and resurrection.The last twenty four hours of Christ can be well explained in terms of ritual drama.It is impossible for so many momentous events to have occurred in such a short time.The last supper, a walk to the Mount of Olives and return, a visit to Gethsemane and the various incidents that occurred, all in one night!Next day there are three trials, a verdict and the execution.The Gospels retell the ancient rituals of the incarnation and resurrection of the sun-god.

An effigy of Attis, the Christ of Western Asia, was tied to a tree then later burnt.Odin, a Norse god, was tied to a tree and wounded with a spear.Prometheus was chained to a rock on a Mount and tortured there.The Acts state twice that Christ was hung on a tree (5:30 ;13:29).Origen, an early Christian, says Christ was hung on a tree.Whether it is a tree, a rock or a wooden cross, the symbolism is quite clear: the god dies to enter matter.

The god rises in three days.Universally there is an initiatory period of three days.Jonah spent three days in the belly of a whale.It is common for the potential shaman to go on a vision quest for three days.Horus fought Set or Sut (matter)for three days.Christmas, the birth of the sun god, is three days after the winter solstice.The importance of three days can be traced to the fact that this is the period when the moon is not visible, between the old moon and the new moon.The moon "dies" then is brought to life by the light of the sun.Three can also represent the three kingdoms of matter: mineral, vegetable and animal, the lowest levels experienced by the divine soul on the earth plane.

The meaning of Christmas

In a short work, Yule and Noel: the Saga of Christmas, Kuhn explains the true meaning of Christmas.Not having been a person, there was no known date for the birth of the Christ.As for various other gods in the ancient world, it was fitting to place the date on the wheel of the year.Before 345 A.D. the birth of the Christ was celebrated on March 25.This date was the rebirth of Horus the Elder in ancient Egypt.In 345 A.D. Pope Julian II switched Christmas to December 25 to coincide with the followers of Bacchus and Mithra, who celebrated the rebirth of the deity under solar symbolism at the Winter solstice.It was a case of if you can't beat them, join them.

The star in the east can be traced back to the star Sirius, also called Sothis or Septet in Egypt (the name is based on the root of the word "Osiris").Sirius was the Morning Star of the year in Egypt.The three wise men are the three stars in the belt of Orion.(The New Testament does not say how many wise men there were, so the number three must have come from another source.)The orthodox account stretches credulity to breaking point.Stars and planets don't hover over one place, for in relation to the earth they are always moving.It's simply impossible for a star in the east to be a guide for people coming from the east.

A manger is a feed trough for animals.What mother in her right mind would put her new born babe, let alone a new born god, in a feed trough?A literal reading produces this absurdity.When read symbolically the story makes profound sense.The Christ or the god is food for our animal nature.It is the purpose of the Christ to refine and uplift our animal nature.

The green pine tree represents the first or natural man, whose life, like that of the green leafage, is drawn up out of the earth.The colour red stands for the second Adam, the spiritual man, as red is universally a symbol for the fiery essence of divine spirit.Holly, with its green leaves and red berries is an excellent symbol for man's two natures.

The Christmas pine tree is cut down and brought into the house.In other words, the process of domesticating the carnal nature has began.The tree is decorated with tinsel, baubles, lights and a star on top.These glittering decorations symbolize the transformation of the carnal nature by the divine spirit.The bright star atop the tree represents the divine light shining forth from the head of humans.This is akin to the opening of the thousand-petaled lotus in the head from Eastern teachings, which is the moment of divine illumination.

Millions of people around the world obtain a tree at Christmas and decorate it in the symbolic manner.How many know the cosmic message expressed by their tree?The truth is beneath our very noses, if we would only open our eyes and see!

The mistletoe, growing high up on the oak tree, was a potent symbol to the Druids of divine elevation of the soul in man.The tree is rooted in the earth, and it gives sustenance to the mistletoe.Thus the Christ nature is sustained by earthly being.In the ancient wisdom a lower material organism must play host to a higher life energy.Kissing under the mistletoe represents the union of the divine soul and the animal soul.

The candle in the window or above the altar wonderfully symbolizes human evolution.The flame connotes the divine soul, the wick the animal soul, joining it to the tallow which stands for the animal body.The animal nature feeds the divine nature.In this process the lower nature is transmuted into divine light.The lighted candle thus provides a graphic representation of spiritual alchemy.

"The failure of two thousand 'blithe Noels' to bring the Christly spirit to birth in the world is easily accounted for.Taken as an overt historical event occurring to one man, and not understood as the implantation of the 'bare grain' of the future growth of godliness in all hearts, the mighty cathartic and transforming force of the accolade to infant deity went out from all hearts and dissipated itself of the imagined figure of this one alleged personage when it was intended that it should go inward to work its benign efficacy upon all souls."(34)The vast outpouring of adoration is wasted on the symbol.The worship of an image diverts attention away from inner transformation.

"The nub of the great sweeping significance was the cardinal truth that unless the Christ be born, loved, reared and exalted as ruler in the conscious life of every individual mortal, his birth has not been brought to pass.One birth in Bethlehem is not enough to leaven the world.All men [sic] must be reborn, and only in this collective birth is the Christos born.If he is not reborn in each heart, he has had his birth nowhere.He can not be born outside of human hearts, minds and consciences.What good could one man's divine love do in a world rankling with the petty selfishness of individuals and the unrelenting animosity of nations? Christos will be born, Messiah will come, when Love reigns in the human breast, and humanity will be born as it gives birth to the King of Love."(35)

Armageddon and the second coming

In the context of the ancient wisdom the battle of Armageddon is the conflict between our animal and divine natures, taking place in the individual.Throughout the ages seekers on the path have reported their dark nights of the soul, their temptations, and other struggles to realize the divine presence.The divine soul has a battle on its hands in order to win victory over the forces of darkness in order to illuminate our life.The pearl of great price is not handed to us on a plate, we have to pay our dues and show that we are worthy to receive it.As William Blake has written:

"What is the price of Experience?do men buy it for a song?
Or wisdom for a dance in the street?No,it is bought with the price
Of all that a man hath,his house, his wife, his children.
Wisdom is sold in the desolate market where none come to buy,
And in the withered field where the farmer ploughs for bread in vain." (Vala or the Four Zoas)

Political Christianity got itself into a terrible muddle when it rejected the ancient wisdom.Instead of accepting the natural cycles of life and the cosmos, it saw time as a straight line.It could not accept natural change, so it proposed a cataclysmic "end of the world".Christ would then appear and the faithful flock would be saved.The misguided are still waiting for a "second coming".

The divine soul is ever coming.It can perpetually renew itself, entering the womb of matter, to be born again and again.We only have to look to nature to see that life continually renews itself: the life cycle of plants, the changing face of nature during the year and so on.Horus, the Egyptian Christ, says:"I am Horus, the Prince of Eternity".Jesus was with the Father before the foundation of the worlds.Horus calls himself "the persistent traveler on the highways of heaven,"and "the everlasting one."

Although it has been much distorted, the ancient wisdom is the foundation of Christianity. Christian holy days, such as Christmas and Easter, are based on the movements of heavenly bodies.These observances were taking place thousands of years before Christianity arrived on the scene.These days it is no secret that Christian festivals have a "pagan" origin.

Relevance of the ancient wisdom for today

The ancient wisdom not only explains the modern predicament but provides the answers we need.At no other period in history have humans been so engulfed in their animal nature as they are today.The basic material needs have come to dominate life, and various false "needs" have been created.The mass media stimulates the lower nature, and numbs the brain with time wasting entertainments.Gross materialism has come to dominate society, causing mass alienation and blotting out awareness of higher values.Even mere infants are shamelessly exploited by advertisers and introduced to the consumer ethic by unwitting parents.Greed and selfishness have become the dominating values in society.Various social problems just keep multiplying, but attempted remedies don't get to the root of our problems.

We have lost touch with the divine soul that is within us.All around us is clear evidence of how low we sink when we don't nurture our divine soul.It is the task for each and everyone to bring to life the god and live with divine radiance.The choice before us becomes clearer day by day: do we continue to be dominated by the carnal nature, turning life into a misery?Or do we seize the time and develop our higher nature and live in illuminated godlike glory?No personal saviour will do the task.Humans must roll up their sleeves and get cracking. We must pierce the cloud of darkness that hangs over us and evolve a life of love and peace.Most today don't even know what true life is like.Life is meant to be grand and glorious, full of love and wonder.We must reclaim our divine birthright and get a taste of the glories of true living

The way ahead

As the cosmic wheel turns and a new astrological age comes to pass, the appropriate symbols are formulated to express the spirit of the age.In the Age of Aries there was the Egyptian cult of Amun; the Hebrews had the Passover lamb; Jason sought the Golden Fleece.In Pisces fish symbolism abounded:the Christ as the Great Fish, the fishermen who became "fishers of men",fish symbols in the catacombs, fish as divine food, and so on.The Avatar of the Age of Aquarius is the Waterbearer.With one pitcher he catches the divine "waters of life", and with his other pitcher he pours out these waters to revive a thirsting humanity.Aquarius is the completed man, an age when humanity can reach its full potential.Currently we are in the death throes of the old age.A birth is always painful, but we must press on and transform this life with new vision. We are the Avatars of the new age.

Mystification and confusion has been a feature of the Age of Pisces, with blind faith replacing reason.Neptune, ruler of Pisces, threw a veil over people's minds and blurred their vision.Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius, is the Awakener.Aquarius is the sign of knowledge.Now is the time for a new awakening which will sweep aside the superstitions of the last 2,000 years.We are now in a position to reclaim the true meaning of the ancient wisdom.People will regain the lost wisdom and walk tall again, proud to live in the company of gods and goddesses, proud to play their pivotal role in the magnificent cosmic drama.

We must relight the lamp of truth and let it shine throughout the land.The darkest hour is just before the dawn.The people are crying out for light and new life.A new day is dawning! Uranus will burst asunder the clouds of darkness that engulf us , releasing the flow of the life giving waters of divine wisdom.The truth can be regained, and it will set you free!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Solomon
Site Admin


Joined: 13 Feb 2006
Posts: 582
Location: Antipodes

PostPosted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:08 am    Post subject: Mmm.. Reply with quote

Mmm.. This is good stuff Bd, very good...

The ideas of Mr Kuhn I mean...

Although I am not sure about this writer...

"It's simply impossible for a star in the east to be a guide for people coming from the east."

I quote this because whilst I agree that the Story of Jesus is an archetypal Story, even THE Archetypal Story perhaps, I think that there is no evidence that there is no evidence of Jesus the man. It would be probably harder still to prove his non-existence than his existence? And in any case, of course one can navigate by the east from the east, any star will do provide you understand it's relationship to where you are and where you are going.

Anyway, that's not to say that I don't agree with the Alvin Boyd Kuhn approach to The Christ Within, this is exactly how to approach the 'real' Jesus, find him within, where everything is to be found.

The Ancient Teaching referred to here is none other than that same Ancient Teaching so completely taught for contemporary people by G.I Gurdjieff.

No, I'm not biased m' Dear, I know I Love Mister G, but that's not the point, it just is a fact that's all. Very Happy

FLiP-FLoP,

David.

Cool
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website

Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    The Peace Forum Forum Index -> Personal Alchemy - The Way of The Peaceful Warrior All times are GMT + 8 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Create your own free forum now!
Terms of Service Purchase Ad Removal Forum Archive Report Abuse